Sweet dreams and angsty things
by TheLovelyRusher
Summary: A collection of one shots, requested by you guys! Anything from the sweetest of fluffs to the angstiest of angst, I will write for you! Request 25: Carlos gets attacked by a feathery beast.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N Hi all my lovelies! I'm going through the dreaded writers block and since I absolutely love getting requests, I decided to make an entire collection of one-shots that you guys want to see, all kept neat and tidy in here! So request away, as long as it's appropriate. I prefer no slash. But if you guys ever want to read something angsty, something hilarious, something sweet, etc than here's your place! I will write almost anything! And everyone who requests gets a shoutout, of course. Hope you all enjoy!**


	2. Anonymous Skrtle

**A/N This one is for Anonymous Skrtle! Huge shoutout to her! You rock!**

**Summary: Carlos loses the big hockey game championship for his school and gets pretty down on himself. **

**Unfortunately, I know nothing about hockey, so there won't be much description of the actual game. I also own nothing.**

Angry faces, shouts of 'boo's' from the audience, hard shoves, mean words lashed out at him. 14 year old Carlos Garcia could hardly take it all in. All in a matter of seconds, everyone hated him. All because he hadn't heard James' shout to pass the puck to Kendall. Well, to be honest, he had heard James' order but he was so _tired_ of Kendall winning the game for their team all the time. He wanted to be the one to win the game for once.

He should've known he was too small and too slow to make the shot. He should've known Deluthe's strongest and fastest player would check him hard into the wall before he could even swing his hockey stick.

And just like that, Carlos slammed into wall and the end buzzer sounded loudly, and half the arena burst into cheers for Deluthe and the other half burst into hatred for Carlos.

Despite the throbbing in pretty much his entire body, the small boy got to his feet and skated out of there as quickly as possible. He was already humiliated as it was, he couldn't have anyone see him crying. He could feel the waterworks building up underneath his tear ducts and it would be a matter of seconds before the dam let loose.

"Carlos! Wait!" James yelled in concern. He was upset they lost the game, but all he really cared about was Carlos right now. He had seen Carlos get checked almost brutally (Kendall was currently giving Daniel, the idiot who hurt Carlos, a piece of his mind) but before James could make his way over to his hurt friend, he had gotten up and quickly skated through the swarm of victorious players from Deluthe.

"What's going on?" Logan asked, skating up to James' side. The smaller brunette hadn't seen what happened. He didn't even know Carlos was the reason they lost.

"Carlos didn't listen to me to pass the puck and he got checked pretty hard. Come on we have to go get him. Kendall!" James skated over to their team captain, who was hurtling out insults at the big buffoon who checked Carlos. "Come on dude, we can beat the snot out of him later, we gotta get Carlos." James gave Daniel a glare. Even though Daniel had some extra weight on him, James was much taller than him, standing already at 5 foot 11 at only 14. Daniel seemed to cower down when he saw the anger on James face. Carlos was easy to pick on as he was only 5 foot 3, but he had Kendall and James as fierce protectors.

"It's your lucky day, for now," Kendall practically snarled, than skated after James and Logan. They quickly removed their skates and helmets and ran out of the rink into the cold night air, looking for their best friend.

"Carlos!" Kendall yelled. "Where are you? I'm not mad at you buddy, I just want to make sure you're ok!" It was the truth. As soon as he saw Daniel fling Carlos tiny body a good 5 feet, any anger Kendall felt was quickly diminished. It was almost impossible to be mad at Carlos, anyway.

"Maybe he ran into the school," Logan suggested when they discovered the area around the rink was empty save for a ton of parked cars. They crossed the street and entered their high school, which was open late because of the hockey game. They scoured the halls for anywhere Carlos might be, but he was nowhere to be found. Carlos was a good hider when he wanted to be.

"Maybe he went home?" James asked after calling Carlos' cell phone for the tenth time.

"Or maybe he went up here…," Kendall said, pointing to a half open door leading up to the roof.

"The roof?" Logan asked. "Why the roof?"

"Because he's Carlos," Kendall said simply, starting to climb the stairs. Logan and James followed him. They were hit by a cold blast of cold wind when they got to the top of the 3 story building but there was Carlos, curled up with his helmet, tiny sobs wracking his body.

"Dude what are you doing up here?" Kendall said through clenched teeth, trying to keep his teeth them from clattering as he approached Carlos. "It's cold as fu-"

"Don't say it!" Logan said quickly, knowing the foulness Kendall was about to release out of his mouth. The tall blonde had recently been going through a stage in which he thought it was cool to swear and Logan was trying to knock it out of him.

"-Fudge," Kendall changed his words. "I was going to say fudge."

Carlos looked up to see his 3 best friends hovering over him, but they were the last people he wanted to see right now. He could practically feel the distaste that they had for him, even though it was all in his head. "Leave me alone, guys."

Logan, James and Kendall looked at each other and laughed. "You're insane if you think we're leaving you up here alone," Logan said. 'Not 'til you tell us what's wrong."

"Well you guys will be here forever cause I'm not saying," Carlos said stubbornly, wrapping his coat around him tighter when a strong gust of wind blew.

"Forever? But it's really cold up here," James said, and Kendall nudged him in the ribs. "Ow! I'm just saying, I don't want chapped lips- ow! Quit ribbing me!"

"Quit being retarded," Kendall said. He sat down next to Carlos and gasped a little when he saw his face. Tiny crystalline tears were frozen on his pale white face after crying in the cold for over 30 minutes. "Logan, we need to get him inside right now."

Logan leaned down to look at what Kendall was pointing to. He touched Carlos' freezing cheek with the back of his fingers. "Dude! You're freezing! You need to get inside before you get hypothermia."

"Nope! I want to stay here 'til I get hypa-whatever and die," Carlos said dramatically. Logan gave James a look, and James scooped Carlos' shivering body into his arms and carried him downstairs into the warmth of the school. But when they got inside, James didn't release Carlos from his hold. Instead, the 3 of them sat against the wall while James held Carlos in his lap.

"What up with the pity me, I wanna die party?" Kendall asked, cutting to the chase.

"Sensitivity!" Logan scolded Kendall before taking off his coat and draping it over Carlos shoulders. James rubbed Carlos' arms gently until he stopped shivering.

"Talk whenever you're ready," Logan said. "But you have to talk. What's wrong Carlitos?"

Carlos heaved a sigh. "I suck."

Logan blinked. "You suck?"

"Yep. "

"Um, care to explain?" Logan asked.

"Nope. Can I go home now?" Carlos made a move to get up, but James pulled him right back down into is lap.

"Did that guy hurt you?" Kendall asked, immediately going into angry bear mode. "Cause I'll kick his ass. Want me to kick his ass?"

"Kendall! Language!" Logan said. "Sheesh. Well, Carlitos? Are you hurt? I can patch you up. I'll take you to my house-"

"I'm not hurt!" Carlos snapped, making Logan flinch. "Why does everyone assume that I'm hurt? Because I'm tiny and weak and pathetic and I can't even swing my hockey stick without getting slammed into a wall by the biggest 10th grader at Deluthe, making me lose the game so Kendall can hate me for the rest of my life? No, I'm not hurt or bleeding, I'm sad!"

"wait, what?" Kendall said, a little taken aback by Carlos' little rant. The Latino was never really good at hiding his emotions. "Why do you think I hate you? Do I look like I hate you?"

Carlos shrugged. "Well, no but…"

"No 'buts', buddy," Kendall said. "I could never hate you. I wish you listened a little better, but you tried your best. Daniel's a jerk. You could've made that shot."

"Then why'd you tell James to have me pass you the puck? You obviously thought I couldn't make it. You never let me play, Kendall. I just wanted to prove to you I could win the game for us. I wanted to make you proud but I guess that was stupid of me."

"Carlos, no, that's not it at all," Kendall said, a little flustered. He wasn't really sure where this was all coming from. He thought Carlos was happy with his position on the time. But now that Kendall thought about it, he never really did give Carlos much credit. "I told you, I knew you could make it it's just I knew Daniel would hurt you. You're smaller than the rest of us. The big guys like to team up against the little ones that's just how it goes. I didn't want you to get injured."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Carlos asked. "I hate being small, and I hate being underestimated for it."

"Dude, I never meant to make you feel that way," Kendall said. "I'm really sorry. If it means anything, I'll help you with your slap shot and think up some plays so you can get some goals in. Does that work? But when it comes to the final goal and Away team is all riled up, you have to let us big guys take the shot. Is that ok?"

Carlos considered this for a moment before replying "Yep!" in his normal, upbeat voice.

"So you're ok?" James asked. He was expecting more tears from Carlos, but the younger boy looked pleased.

"Yeah, I'm ok. Thanks guys. Let's get some corndogs!" Carlos jumped to his feet and started skipping to the car.

"Well, gotta love his bounce back," Logan said, stunned.

Kendall shrugged. "He's Carlos. Race you to mom's car!"

"It's on!" James and Logan yelled, running after Kendall and Carlos.

They let Carlos win, of course.

**A/N Sorry for the cheesewhiz ending but hey, Carlos seems like he wouldn't be sad for very long. But you enjoyed it. Please review and request guys! Love ya!**


	3. digimontklover and ivictoriousrushvp

**A/N This one is for Digimontklover! She requested a tickle fight, so big shoutout to her! You rock! And a shoutout to Ivictoriousrushvp who requested a tickle fight as well! Enjoy guys!**

**Summary: Logan doesn't handle getting a bad grade too well. What starts out as Carlos trying to cheer our favorite nerd up turns into an all-out 2J tickle war.**

It was a normal afternoon in apartment 2J. Carlos was making a 4 story tower out of corndogs, James was shining his lucky comb, and Kendall was sharpening his hockey skates when Logan burst through the door, red-faced and grumbling under his breath about how unfair something was.

"Um, Logan? You ok buddy?" James asked, watching his small friend throw his backpack on the couch, slam some papers on the kitchen table, and pull the refrigerator door open roughly so he could take out an entire gallon of chocolate milk and chug it straight from the container. Kendall shared a confused look with James at this. Logan never drank from the container.

"Uh, Logan? What about the germs?" Kendall asked.

"Who cares about germs? My life is over anyway!" Logan said dramatically.

"What happened?" Carlos asked.

"Nothing," Logan said quickly. He really wasn't looking forward to telling his friends he actually failed his English paper. He already sucked at everything else. Singing, dancing, girls… Pretty much anything that required swag, he lacked. Academics were the one and only thing his friends ever turned to him to get advice for. It was the only strength he possessed. If they found out he got a big fat 'F' on his paper, he was sure they'd disown him. Well maybe not disown him, but they'd laugh and most likely think of him as worthless.

"Are you sure it's nothing? Because your 'life being over' sounds like something," Kendall said.

"I just had a bad day," Logan replied. He wriggled his way up swirly and slammed his door shut, locking himself away from his friends.

"What was that about?" James asked.

'I don't know, but he seemed upset," Carlos said.

"No duh, Carlos," Kendall said sarcastically. He went over to the small pile of papers on the table and looked through them. The essay he had seen Logan work so hard on all week until the wee hours of the morning had red scratched all over it, and a big red 'F' on the front of it. "Oooh. I know what's wrong with Logan guys."

Carlos snatched the paper from Kendall. "Whoa! Logan's never gotten less than an A- on an essay before! He rocks at those."

"I have to go talk to him," Kendall said. He knew Logan would be blowing it all out of proportion. For some reason, he always made a huge deal out of his studies. Kendall went to the room he shared with Logan, jiggled the door knob, and gave the door a hard shove before closing it and sitting next to the lump on Kendall's bed that was blankets and Logan.

"How'd you get in here?" Logan whined, not even having to look up to know it was Kendall.

"I know the secret to get the door open. It has a weak lock," Kendall explained, unraveling Logan from his pile of blankets. Logan rolled onto the floor with a thud.

"Ow," the small brunette said in a monotone voice, burying his face in his arms.

"Sorry," Kendall said. "What were you doing in my bed though?" He smirked when he saw the dark red color Logan already was creep across the back of his neck.

"It's comfy," Logan said, embarrassed to admit that he looked to anything Kendall to comfort him when he was upset. There was just something comforting about Kendall, this big brother aura that could make even the worst day not seem so bad.

"I know about your essay," Kendall said softly.

Logan froze. "You do? How?"

"You left it on the kitchen table."

Logan groaned. "You have got to be kidding me!"

Kendall chuckled and shook Logan's shoulder gently. "Dude, it's not that big a deal, ok? Everyone gets a bad grade sometimes. It sucks that you worked so hard on it but you can't ace everything all the time. And your life is certainly not 'over' because of it. You're still the overly-smart, know-it-all nerd-a-blerd-a-derd Logie that you always have been."

Logan rolled onto his back. "Nerd-a-blerd-a-derd still isn't a word."

Kendall smiled and patted Logan's knee. "Just please don't beat yourself up over this? One bad grade doesn't mean a thing. At least to me it doesn't. Now come down to the pool and help me beat James and Carlos at water volleyball."

Logan tried to smile back, but Kendall could tell he was still down because of that one stupid letter. He had half a mind to beat up whatever teacher gave him that grade but at the same time, he wanted Logan to accept the fact that he doesn't have to be perfect.

"Thanks, bro," Logan said with a sigh. "I think I'm just gonna go to bed early though."

"It's only 5 0' clock," Kendall said. Logan shrugged.

"I just want to be alone for a bit. Maybe I'll join you guys later."

"Ok. Feel better, Logie." Kendall poked Logan in the ribs, and the smaller boy emitted the loudest and probably cutest laugh Kendall had ever heard.

"Logie, are you… Ticklish?" Kendall asked with a mischievous grin. How could he have never known this useful fact about his little brother?

Logan's smile quickly faded. "N-no," he said, guarding his tummy because Kendall looked ready to pounce on him at any minute.

"Yes you are!" Kendall said excitedly. "Logie bear is ticklish!"

"No I'm not!" Logan said, trying to curl into a ball when he saw Kendall raise his fingers and wiggle them around. But Kendall easily pried Logan's arms from around his knees and started mercilessly tickling his belly, loving the sounds of Logan's childish giggles and screeches.

"K-Kendall, uncle! I've had enough!" Logan cried, nearly hyperventilating with laughter. Tears poured down his cheeks and Kendall finally stopped.

"Feeling better bro?" He asked, reaching out his hand to pull him to his feet. Logan nodded, wiping at his cheeks.

"Yeah, thanks buddy," Logan said, wrapping his arms around Kendall and giving him a big squeeze. He really did feel much better. Suddenly, the bad grade wasn't such a big deal. All Logan could think of was waging war on Kendall for the sudden tickle attack.

-Page Break-

Logan rolled over in his bed and looked at the digital clock that read 2 am. He had been waiting for this moment all night. He quietly padded out of his room and shook Carlos awake.

"Corndogs," Carlos muttered into his pillow. "Love you corndog…."

"Carlos, wake up. I need your help. We're gonna tickle Kendall to death."

Carlos sat up straight, grabbing his helmet that almost seemed to appear out of nowhere. "I'm in!"

"Dude, where do you keep that thing?" Logan asked. Carlos shrugged.

"Under my pillow, silly. Let's move!"

Carlos and Logan creeped into Kendall's room and hovered over him. "You hold him down, I tickle him," Logan instructed. Carlos grabbed Kendall's wrists, and the blonde boy jolted awake.

"Huh, what?" Kendall exclaimed, and Logan chuckled evilly.

"Payback buddy!" Logan said, jumping on Kendall and tickling his middle, while Carlos tickled his armpits. Kendall immediately started laughing and thrashing around.

"Ah! Hahaha! Guys, it hurts! Hahaha! Stop! Hahahahahaha! Ahhhhh!" Kendall shrieked. He mustered up enough strength to flip his body over, knocking Logan to the ground and landing on top of him. He then tripped Carlos and held them both down so he could tickle them relentlessly.

"Ha! How do you like it?" Kendall yelled. Carlos and Logan were laughing too hard to answer, they just flailed their limbs and screeched, trying to fight off the bigger boy.

"What's going on in here?" James asked, walking in on the tickle war. He thought at first that the boys were fighting. It looked like they were having a wrestling match only they were... Giggling?

Carlos, Logan and Kendall hopped to their feet and held their hands out, wiggling their fingers at James, who was thoroughly creeped out at the moment.

"Get him!" Logan said, arching his eyebrows so he looked slightly demonic, and they ran at poor James, who had no idea what was going on.

"What? No! Don't get me! Ahh! Not the hair!" James cried when his friends jumped on him, knocking him to the ground and suddenly 3 pairs of hands were tickling his armpits, tummy, and feet. "Hahahaha! I can't breathe! Guys! Hahahahaha!"

Finally, after a good 15 minutes of tickling, the guys all fell on their backs, gasping for air and getting the last giggles out.

"That was fun!" Carlos said. "You should fail more often, Logan!"

Logan glared at Carlos and punched him straight in the stomach. Carlos squeaked.

'Sorry Logan!"

**A/N Hahaha, ok that was fun. Hope you guys enjoyed it. Please review and request? Love you guys! Thanks for reading!**


	4. candy smile

**A/N Thanks for the reviews guys! I'm getting so many requests! I love it keep them coming! Shoutout for Candy smile, who requested a Kames bromance sickfic. I love sick fics and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! I don't own Ihop. Or anything for that matter.**

**Summary: Carlos and Logan are out of town, James is excited for Kendall time, but Kendall gets expectantly ill and it's up to our favorite pretty boy to care for him.**

James Diamond woke up bright and early on a Saturday morning. He was too excited to sleep. He had been waiting for this day for weeks. Carlos and Logan left the night before because Gustavo made them go to a whole weekend-long dance intensive because, well, they look like 2 retarded seals shaking their hips when they danced. And that meant he and Kendall had the entire weekend, 2 whole days, to spend together and James had every minute planned out. First they were going to have a pancake eating contest at Ihop, than one on one parking lot hockey, than they were going to see the new scary movie and drive around and take a late night swim and James was so excited he actually squealed as he got dressed for the day. Lately he had been feeling kind of left out because Kendall was always babying Logan and watching out for Carlos, it's like Kendall had no time to spend with James anymore. Simply put, James needed big-bro/little-bro time with his favorite blonde leader.

"Oh Kendall!" James sang out, practically skipping into Kendall's room. "Wake up, buddy!"

"Ugh, what time is it?" Kendall groaned, slightly peeved that James was waking him up out of a deep sleep. He felt sort of cold and he had a hollow feeling in his stomach, but he blamed it on being hungry.

"7 am on this bright and happy morning! Now get out of bed so we can start the Kendall/James day of bro-fun!"

"Can you be anymore lame?" Kendall muttered, even though he was excited to hang out with James for the day. He rolled out of bed and swayed with dizziness. James reached an arm out to steady his friend.

"Whoa dude, you ok?"

"Yeah, fine," Kendall replied, staying still for a moment to regain his vision. "I guess I just got up too fast." He gave James a reassuring smile.

"Oh, ok," James said a little warily. "Well get dressed so we can get started!"

"Alright, I'll be down in a few," Kendall said. James went downstairs to wait for him. Kendall got dressed in a green and grey plaid shirt and did his hair quickly before joining James. "Ok, what's first on the bro-fun agenda?"

"Pancake eating contest at Ihop," James announced, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, brown hair flopping over his eyes. If Kendall wasn't as manly as he was, he would've admitted it was a pretty adorable sight. He looked like an excited little kid.

"It's on!" Kendall said, ignoring the way his stomach seemed to knot at the sound of food. They drove the short distance to the restaurant, James chattering non-stop about his latest hair styling products. Kendall did his best to tune it out but his head was starting to pound.

"…And than I follow up with the 'Exotic Meow Super Sexy Holding Spray' after I comb through 'Exotic Meow Leave-In Conditioner' and- Kendall? You ok?"

"Huh? What?" Kendall said. He had zoned out completely, staring out the passenger window at James drove and chatted.

"You look sorta pale, Kendall. Are you ok?" James asked. Kendall's face was a pasty grey and his cheeks were a little flushed, like he was running a fever.

"Yeah, just tired," Kendall said, blinking away the pain behind his eyes. "I have a touch of a headache." Suddenly, James' hand was in his face, trying to swoop away his blonde hair and feel for fever. Kendall swiped James' fingers away. "I'm fine, James."

"Ok, ok," James said, taking his hand away. "Just making sure."

They arrived at the restaurant and Kendall's stomach clenched at the scent of food. The smell of sizzling bacon and sickeningly sweet syrup made his insides churn. He almost wanted to turn down James' pancake challenge, but as soon as they sat down James double dog dared him to eat a chocolate chip pancake bacon sandwich covered in boysenberry syrup and as revolting as that sounded, Kendall never backed down from a dare.

Several minutes later, Kendall was chowing down on the nasty "sandwich" James created for him, and James was eating a sausage and egg mash covered in tobacco sauce and strawberry syrup that Kendall made for him.

"This is disgusting," James said after 2 bites, pushing his food away.

"I agree," Kendall said, spitting his bite of food from his mouth onto the plate.

"Let's order our all you can eat pancakes now," James said, flagging their waitress down.

"Um, I don't know if I'm hungry for that," Kendall said. His stomach was already creaking in protest at the 3 bites of nasty sandwich he ate.

"Whatever, you barely ate anything so far," James said, not realizing Kendall didn't feel well. He ordered 2 all you can eat pancakes and Kendall just shrugged off the stomach pain and ate the pancakes with James. Even with his stomachache, he still managed to win the contest at 12 pancakes. James petered out at 10.

'That was so awesome," James said, getting into their car. Kendall collapsed into the passenger seat and groaned.

"I'm so full James!" He whined, clutching his stomach.

"It's the pain of victory," James said, patting Kendall's stomach. Kendall groaned. That really _hurt_.

"Screw victory, I'm gonna puke," Kendall said, curling in on himself. He knew this was more than being full, he felt down right sick, and his headache was worsening by the moment.

"We'll rest in the park for a moment before we play hockey," James suggested. He was worried for Kendall. His blonde friend was acting strangely. Kendall didn't answer, just laid his head back and let the rumbling of the car lure him to sleep.

"Kendall, you feel hot," James' worried voice woke Kendall up. He felt a cool and comforting head on his burning forehead and he leaned into the touch.

"M'fine," Kendall mumbled, sitting up straight. "How long was I out?"

"Like 20 minutes. I think you have a fever, dude. Do you want to go home?" James asked, his voice sounding a little sad. He didn't want his day with Kendall to be ruined, and Kendall didn't want to ruin it for him.

"Nah, I'm good," Kendall said, slowly uncurling himself and ignoring the ache in his stomach. "Come on, let's play some hockey."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm fine James. Let's play." Kendall grabbed his hockey stick and roller skates and headed to a large empty area in the parking lot, and James followed. They strapped on their skates and started their game. It was actually fun enough that Kendall forgot about his sickness, but that didn't last long. The consistent ache soon turned into a nasty bout of nausea and he felt cold and feverish. His head pounded and swam dizzily. He dropped his hockey stick in the middle of the game and leaned over, putting his hands on his knees and breathing heavily. He really didn't feel good.

"Kendall! You alright?" James asked, throwing his stick down and skating to his pale friend. He put his hands on Kendall's shoulders and studied his face. "You don't look so good, buddy."

'I don't feel so good," Kendall moaned. His stomach twisted uncomfortably, and suddenly all the pancakes he ate that morning found their way out of his stomach and onto the asphault.

"Whoa! It's ok, I gotcha," James said, ignoring the disgusted glares of passerby's witnessing Kendall vomiting. He held Kendall up with strong arms and patted his back until it was over.

"James," Kendall groaned, feeling absolutely weak. This was horrible. Throwing his guts up in public was not on his to-do list today.

"Come on buddy, let's go home," James said. He helped Kendall remove his skates and load everything into the car, then drove home as fast as possible. Kendall crawled into bed as soon as they arrived at the apartment, groaning and clutching his stomach. James just watched helplessly. He had no clue how to fix tummyaches or lower fevers.

"Tell me what to do," James said, sitting on the edge of Kendall's bed. He was starting to feel a little panicked. He needed Logan, but his little doctor friend was currently in a dance lesson and couldn't answer the phone. "What's wrong?"

"My stomach hurts and so does my head," Kendall replied. "I just want to sleep."

"Ok, yeah, you should probably sleep," James said. He tucked his shivering friend in with a blanket and patted his shoulder. "Call me in if you need anything, buddy."

"Ok. Sorry, James," Kendall said, voice tired and slow.

"Why are you sorry, Kendall?"

"I ruined your day. I know you were looking forward to it."

James smiled softly and rubbed Kendall's back. "I don't even care about that, bro. Just get some rest, ok?" James rubbed Kendall's back in soothing circles until he fell asleep. James wasn't as self-absorbed as he people took him for. In fact, he was sort of enjoying being able to take care of his friend.

James grabbed his laptop from his room and hung out in Kendall's room so he could keep a watchful eye on his sick friend. Whenever Kendall would moan or whimper, James was right there to rub his back until he fell back to sleep. But a couple hours later, Kendall started retching in his sleep and woke up just in time to make a bee line straight to the bathroom. James stood up in alarm and followed Kendall into the bathroom, where the pale blonde was vomiting what was left in his stomach into the porcelain God. James winced.

"You ok buddy?" James asked, kneeling beside his heaving friend and flushing when he was done.

"Ugh, it hurts," Kendall said, leaning against James for support. He was too weak to even sit up by himself at the moment and James held him gently for several minutes in comfortable silence. Kendall relaxed into the hold. He wasn't at all ashamed to let his best friend hold him, though. He would never in a million years ever let Carlos and Logan see him in such a vulnerable condition simply because he was their protector. He took care of them when they were sick, not the other way around. But it was different with James. Kendall didn't feel like he had to put on the tough guy front for him. James just always seemed to silently understand when Kendall needed help, and he never had to ask for it. Because everyone knew Kendall would never ask for help. That's what Kendall loved best about James, he saw right through Kendall and knew just what he needed.

"You ready to lie down?" James asked after a few more minutes. The hard tile of the bathroom floor wasn't the most comfy of all places. Kendall nodded and James hauled him to his feet and led him into bed, where he felt his forehead. Kendall was burning up and James had no idea how to fix it.

After Kendall fell asleep again, James tried calling Logan for the tenth time and Logan finally answered.

'What's up James?" Logan asked, answering the phone. He was on a 15 minute break and hadn't realized James was trying to call him.

"It's Kendall, he's really sick. What should I do?"

"Wait, hold up, Kendall is sick? As in Kendall Knight, who's like never sick?" Logan didn't believe it.

"Yeah, he's puking and feverish and help me! No, better yet, come home!"

"James I can't do that. I'm 3 hours away from LA. What are the rest of his symptoms? Does his side hurt? We need to rule out appendicitis."

"Um, I don't know. He's sleeping."

"Well wake him up for a minute and check."

"How?"

Logan sighed. "Press on his right side and ask if it hurts."

"Oh. K." James shook Kendall gently. "Bud? I have a question and then you can go back to sleep."

"Mmm?" Kendall moaned. James pressed his palm against the cold, pale skin of Kendall's side.

"Does that hurt, Kendall? Tell the truth."

"No," Kendall mumbled. "Can I go back to sleep now?"

"Yeah, go ahead," James said. "He said no, Logan."

"Good. Next, get the thermometer from the bathroom," Logan instructed, and James did as he was told. "Then you're going to stick it in his ear very gently and press the button at the top."

"Ok. What ear?"

Logan rolled his eyes. "It doesn't matter."

"K." James took Kendall's temperature. "He's running a fever of one hundred and three." James heard Logan take in a sharp, worried breath.

"That's really high…" Logan said. "He must have a stomach flu of some sort."

"Stomach flu? Logan I really think you should come home now." James was pleading now. He was worried for Kendall and he didn't know what to do.

"Nonsense, just give him some Tylenol, keep him warm, and make sure he drinks 8 ounces of water every hour so he doesn't dehydrate."

"But Logan, I really don't know what to do. What if he gets worse? I've never taken care of a sick person before and he's really sick right now."

"James, relax. You can do this. I have to go, but I already told you what to do. Put a cold wash cloth on his forehead and let him sleep. You just have to let it run its course."

James huffed. "But-"

"Bye James," Logan said quickly. He was concerned for Kendall, but he knew James could handle this just fine.

James sighed and hung up before studying Kendall. The poor boy was sweating profusely now. Every few minutes his thin form would shudder with fever. James got a washcloth and soaked it in cold water, than laid it across Kendall's forehead for a few minutes. It didn't take long before the washcloth was warm, but at least Kendall's forehead felt a bit cooler.

Kendall slept for several more hours. James was getting kind of bored, watching movies by himself. He was glad his sick friend finally woke up because it would give him something to do.

"James, I'm thirsty," Kendall croaked, sitting up and leaning against his headboard.

"Oh! Water!" James said, forgetting he was supposed to keep Kendall hydrated. He brought him a tall, cold glass of water and gave him the Tylenol pills for his fever. "How you feeling bro?"

"Pretty gross," Kendall said, sipping at his water. It was like heaven on his parched lips and dry throat.

"Is your stomach still hurting?"

"Yeah, it's cramping really bad. But I'm not nauseous anymore," Kendall said. "What time is it? I'm sure we can still make the scary movie."

James stared at Kendall like he had a dancing monkey on his head. "Seriously? You're puking your guts out, you have a high fever, and you want to go see a movie?"

Kendall shrugged sheepishly. "I don't want to ruin the entire day."

"Too late for that, buddy," James said with a laugh. "We'll watch some scary movies here. I'll be right back." James went down to the living room to get a stack of movies and some saltine crackers for Kendall, just in case he felt hungry.

"Here Ken, I got 'Night Of The Living Sasquatch', 'Your Soul Is Mine To Eat', and our favorite 'Blood, Blood, Blood.' I also brought you some saltine crackers because whenever my stomach hurts before an audition I eat a few and it makes me feel better so if you're hungry maybe it will help. And here's an extra blanket in case you get cold, because I don't know about you but I like to cuddle in my blankets when I'm sick."

Kendall smiled. "Thanks James, but you don't have to do all this stuff for me bro."

James shrugged. "I want to. It's my job to take care of you because Logan's not here."

Kendall blushed. "It's nobody's 'job' to take care of me. I'm a big boy, I can do it myself."

"Oh whatever, everyone wants to be taken care of when they're sick. Besides, you take care of us like 24/7. Literally. When I went to that sketchy party you told me not to go to, who picked me up at 3 am? When Logan had strep throat last month, you never left his side. When Carlos fell off his motorized scooter and had to spend the night at the hospital, who fought tooth and nail with the doctors so you can stay with him. You know what? You do way too much for us. So for the rest of the weekend, you get to lay in bed and do whatever you want and I'm not letting you get up."

"What if I want to get up?"

"Too bad," James said, even though it contradicted what he just said.

Kendall sighed. James had his serious face on, and there was no arguing with the rare serious face. "That all is my job, dude. It's different."

'Who said?"

Kendall gave him a questioning look. 'What do you mean?"

"Who said it's your job, Kendall? Who said you have to act way beyond your years and take care of us morning, noon and night, clean up our idiotic messes, and protect us from everything. Don't you feel that's unfair?"

"Well, no. I mean, I like taking care of you guys so I never thought about it. It's not that big of a deal."

"Well it's nice to be the one being taken care of sometimes so just sit back and relax." James removed a small fuzzy ball from his pocket and Kendall raised a bushy eyebrow.

"Um, what's that James?" 

"Fuzzy socks," James replied, lifting Kendall's blanket and slipping them on his cold feet for him, too which Kendall felt slightly humiliated because he was 18 years old and his best guy friend was putting socks on his feet. "They make me feel better when I'm sick. Aren't they cozy?"

Kendall's face was getting redder by the minute. "Um, yes."

James smiled and flopped next to Kendall, pressing "play" on the remote. "Time for some blood. And don't forget to tell me if you need anything, mister."

Kendall groaned. James was beginning to be worse than his mother. Every 20 minutes, James' big hand was on his forehead, making sure his fever wasn't getting higher. It stayed the same for a couple hours when James could actually feel Kendall's body temperature raising next to him, and they were barely even touching shoulders. James felt his stomach drop at how quickly his friend was getting worse. Kendall's head lulled onto James shoulder as he dozed off while murmuring stuff that didn't make any sense. James stuck the thermometer in Kendall's ear and chewed on his lip nervously. It had shot up to one hundred and four in a matter of minutes.

"Kendall, hey, wake up buddy," James said, shaking the sweaty blonde.

"Huh?"

"You're really sick, dude. You need to take one of these." James gave him another Tylenol, which Kendall swallowed with a little difficulty.

"My stomach hurts James," Kendall moaned, curling up into the tiniest ball James had ever seen, blankets wrapped up to his ears. The way he looked and the noises he made reminded James of a tiny mewling kitten.

"I know, but it will pass soon. Just relax," James soothed, hoping he was right. He honestly had no idea if this was going to pass or not. James would've given anything for Logan to come home right then.

James stroked the back of Kendall's sweat soaked hair for a few minutes, which seemed to relax the sick teenager temporarily, but he soon gave a shuddering, dry sob that broke James' heart.

"Kendall? Are you ok?" James asked in a small voice, and Kendall nodded.

"I'll be ok," The blonde said in a strained voice. "It just hurts a lot right now."

"I'll be right back," James said. He had to think of something- anything to help his best friend. He went downstairs and found the hot water pack Logan kept for whenever they pulled a muscle in dance rehearsal and filled it with boiling water, than filled a bowl with ice water and retrieved a new washcloth before heading back up to Kendall.

"Hey buddy, let's see if this will help," James said, sitting next to Kendall. He lifted Kendall's blanket and arms, which the blonde had curled protectively around his belly, and rested the hot water pack under his shirt. Kendall moaned in comfort. It felt really good. As soon as James pressed the warmth to his clenching stomach, the muscles immediately relaxed. "Is that better?"

"Mmmhmm," Kendall muttered. James dipped the washcloth into the water bowl and dabbed it on his hot, red skin, than laid it across his sweaty forehead.

"Get some sleep, bro. I'll check on you in a bit," James said, knowing Kendall needed his rest now. He looked absolutely exhausted. He went to leave, but he felt a warm, clammy hand grip his wrist weakly. He looked down to see fever-bright emerald eyes begging him for something. "Kendall? What's the matter buddy?"

"Stay with me?" Kendall whispered, almost ashamed. James smiled.

"Sure bro," He said, lying next to his friend. He wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him close, and Kendall's eyelashes fluttered before resting peacefully on his flushed cheeks, and little, squeaky snores emitted from the sleeping blonde. James continued wiping his face and neck down with the cold washcloth for several long minutes, holding the ill boy gently as if he could break.

An hour passed and James took his temperature one more time. A 1000 pound weight seemed to remove itself from his chest. Kendall's fever was slowly starting to lower. His skin was starting to cool and his shivering wasn't quite so violent. Realizing he was exhausted too, James felt asleep with his arm around his best friend's shoulder.

It was midnight when Logan quietly crept into the room he shared with Kendall. He had begged Gustavo to let him and Carlos skip the 2nd day of training to make sure Kendall was ok to find James with a long, strong arm wrapped around a blanketed Kendall's shoulders with a thermometer in his other hand, as if he was just waiting to take Kendall's temperature. And the sick blonde boy was curled into James' side, looking peaceful and sweet.

Logan smiled to himself. He knew James could do it.

**A/N Wow that was long! What can I say, I'm obsessed with writing sickfics. Did anybody like it? What did you think? Who might want to see a one shot in the future about the sketchy party Kendall saved James from? Please review I love you guys! Thanks for reading!**


	5. vikwis13

**A/N Hey guys! I just want to say thanks for all the reviews and requests! I love requests so much, I feel like I'm writing you all little presents haha. You all are amazing! Ok before I get started, I just wanted to say if you haven't read asdfghjklblahs new story I seriously recommend it. She's pretty awesome.**

**This is for vikwhis 13! Thanks for being an awesome reader, writer and reviewer! She seriously has some of the cutest stories ever. I hope you enjoy this! I made this as a camping trip because I love being outside and it's been so horribly hot and I'm dreaming of playing outside all day in fall weather. Last night I couldn't take it anymore and played outside all night and rolled down hills (I live in the country) and had an allergic reaction to the grass Sad day. But it was still awesomely fun!**

**Summary: The boys go camping but it unexpectantly storms! Carlos is terrified of thunder and needs some cuddlin'!**

"Guys, the wind is really picking up! We need to get these tents staked in, now. Quit goofing off!" Logan said. It had been a long day of hiking and they finally got to their destination at the top of the mountain trail. It had been a long, but fun day, and all Logan wanted was to get the tents pitched and build their fire so they could eat hotdogs**, **smores, and tell scary stories. But it was now getting dark, windy, and the boys were having a "jousting" fight: Carlos rode on James' back with a giant stick and Kendall sat in a tree with an equally giant stick, trying to jab each other off of their "posts".

"Guys, are you even listening to me?" Logan yelled. Apparently they weren't. Logan marched right up to James and Carlos, snatched their stick, and knocked Kendall out of the tree with it.

"Oof! Logan!" Kendall whined. He only fell 5 feet but it hurt.

"Pitch the tents!" Logan said, pointing to the half-setup tent. "I can't do it myself, I'm too short-"

"Haha shortie!" James taunted.

"Shut it James," Logan said, annoyed. "I'll build the fire." Logan stalked off to build a rather large fire for roasting weenies.

30 minutes later, it was pitch black save for golden glittery stars in the sky and a warm, orange fire. The air was cool and crisp and crickets sang loudly in the trees. The boys just sat on large logs with their hotdogs on their sharpened sticks, slowly blackening over the fire. For once in their crazy lives, it was silent and peaceful as they listened to the crackle of the flames.

"This is nice," James said, his smile accentuated by the golden glow of the bonfire. Carlos nodded beside him and gave a little shiver. It was chilly out, but it felt good. Cool weather wasn't easy to come by in LA.

"You cold, buddy?" James asked the small Latino, his big brother instincts coming out. Carlos nodded, and James reached behind him and grabbed the fleece blanket he brought along, than spread it over Carlos' lap. Kendall and Logan smiled as they watched James tuck their youngest friend in. James was so sweet and protective over him, it was fun and charming to watch.

Suddenly, a rumble of thunder sounded in the distance and Carlos nearly jumped out of his skin, grabbing James' arm. James winced when he felt fingernails dig into his bicep, but he didn't say anything.

"I hope it doesn't storm," Logan said. "That would be miserable."

"You don't think it will really storm, will it?" Carlos asked, loosening his grip on James' arm a bit. Everyone knew Carlos was afraid of storms, but they thought he had grown out of it years ago.

"I don't know, it's sort of far away for now," Logan said, looking up at the sky. Thick gray clouds traveling fast from the west were covering the twinkling stars and the air was getting thicker in an almost ominous way. "Let's hope it misses us. It wasn't supposed to storm."

"I know what will get our mind off it," Kendall said, wiggling his brown caterpillar eyebrows. "Ghost stories!" He picked up the only flashlight they brought and turned it on, illuminating his face so he looked glowy and slightly demonic.

"Ooh! I got one!" James said excitedly, ripping the flashlight out of Kendall's hands.

"No, me first!" Kendall said childishly, taking the flashlight back. "I have a good one. Once upon a time, the Kendall Creeper of Palmwoods snuck into James Diamonds bathroom, opened up all his Cuda products and than… He ate them all! Nom nom nom!"

"Ah!" James shrieked his signature mini scream. "Not cool dude!"

Kendall snorted and shook his head while Carlos and Logan giggled.

"My turn!" James said, snatching the flashlight. "Ok, prepare yourselves guys cause this is a really scary one. 18 years ago, on a dark stormy night, in a creepy dank hospital… Kendall Donald Knight was born. Bam!" James fell off his log in a fit of laughter and Kendall glared at him.

"Ha ha, so funny," Kendall said sarcastically.

"That was actually a good one," Logan said.

"Haha. Your turn Logie," James said, tossing the small brunette the flashlight.

"What? Nah, I don't have one," Logan said.

"Yes you do, you know you do," James encouraged. "Please? You can be so frightening when you want to be."

Logan sighed. "Ok, ok. This one's called 'the backwoods wind':_ One cold October day 50 years ago, little Jenny and her brother Mikey were exploring the woods around their brand new house when they came across an old, brown, rickety little cottage that hadn't been lived in for ages. It looked creepy. All the trees were dead, there was a tire swing hanging limp from one of the branches, and a rocking chair creaked back and forth on the old, rotted front porch. 'Creaakk, creeakkk, creeaakkkk,'" _Logan made his voice sound like an actual slow, creaky wooden rocking chair. "'_Jenny was getting a little freaked out. She begged and begged her brother to leave, and he reluctantly went back home with her. But the next day, Mikey went back to the cottage to explore around. He went into the rundown cottage and found pictures of a really old woman who used to live there, but died many, many years before. All of a sudden he heard an ugly voice whisper 'get out!' Now Mikey was getting scared and went to leave, but suddenly a gust of strong wind blew the screen door shut, locking him in the house. Mikey used all his strength to kick the door straight off his hinges and ran outside, but the wind was blowing stronger and stronger with each second, whipping up dirt and debris and stinging his eyes so he couldn't see. The rocking chair started flinging back and forth unnaturally fast, creaking so loud his ears hurt. Pretty soon, he was in the middle of a whirlwind, almost a tornado. The image of the old ladies face appeared in the tornado, laughing evilly, and the wind swooped Mikey up and carried him away, never to be seen again.' _The end!" Logan finished. The flashlight flickered and went out as the battery died, making the moment even eerier.

"Wow, that was kind of scary," Kendall said, a bit shocked.

"Yeah, I think you scared Carlitos," James said with a chuckle. Carlos had his face smooshed against James sleeve, clinging to his arm tightly. Logan laughed.

'"Sorry Carlitos. It's just a story," Logan said. He looked up at the sky again, which was looking more and more threatening by the minute. "We better eat our smores and get in our tents before the rain starts." Logan started handing out fixings for smores and they sat around the fire, pigging out on the sugary treats and singing obnoxiously until the first drops of rain started falling.

"Dang it," Logan whined. "Hopefully it's just a drizzle…" Right on cue after he said that, the sky seemed to open up and pour hard, cold pellets of water on the 4 friends, immediately putting out the fire. The boys let out squeals they would be ashamed to let anyone but each other hear and hurried into their tents. Like their bedroom arrangements at home, Kendall and Logan took one tent and James and Carlos took the other.

"Brr, it's cold," Carlos said, wrapping his blanket around him tighter.

"And dark," James said, shimmying into his sleeping bag.

Carlos subconsciously scooted closer to James. He hadn't noticed how dark it was until James had said something about it. He always slept with a night light on in his bedroom. He hadn't realized how pitch black it was going to be in the tent.

"Well, I'm exhausted," James announced, snuggling into his pillow. 'Night night!"

"Night," Carlos squeaked nervously. The rumbles of thunder were getting louder and the rain was getting heavier. He laid awake for 30 minutes, listening to the wind howl and the tent shake. All he could think of was the scary story. Suddenly, he thought he heard a creaking noise in the distance, just like Logan made in the story. He couldn't tell if it was just his overactive imagination or what, but right now Carlos was so scared he was afraid he might pee in his sleeping bag.

"Psst! James," Carlos whimpered, rolling onto his side and shoving his friend awake.

'Huh? What?" James mumbled. "You ok Carlitos?"

"Do you think that story Logan told was real?"

James moaned and wiped the sleep from his eyes. "What do you mean buddy?" he slurred.

"I heard a creaking noise."

"Oh. It was probably just a dream. Go back to sleep."

"But I wasn't asleep James," Carlos said, his voice slightly high pitched. "I'm scared. The wind is really strong like in Logan's story. What if the mean ghost lady picks us up in a tornado and we die for the rest of our lives?"

"Carlos, you're making no sense," James said. He chuckled at Carlos' choice of words but he was also slightly annoyed. He was too tired and groggy for this. "Look buddy, there is no scary ghost lady or supernatural tornados, ok? And even if there was, they would have to get through me and my muscles first. So they can't hurt you. Just get some sleep."

Carlos sighed. He knew James wouldn't believe him. "Ok bro. Good night." The little Latino sunk down even further into his sleeping bag. No sooner than James had fallen asleep, a loud clap of thunder jolted him awake, followed by a wicked flash of lightning.

"Whoa, that was intense," James said, a little shaken. "Carlos, you ok? Carlitos?" James peered into Carlos' sleeping back and pouted in sympathy. Carlos was completely hidden under the covers, crying quietly into his pillow. James rubbed tiny circles into his back.

"Carlos, it's ok. It's just noise," James said in a soothing voice. Another boom of thunder rattled the tent, and James felt Carlos' muscles quiver in fear. 'Wow, you're really scared, aren't you?"

"C-can you turn a light on?" Carlos asked, sniffling.

"There are no lights. The flashlight battery died-ah!" James let out a yelp after yet another deafening clap of thunder, and Carlos jumped out of his sleeping bag and landed almost comically into James' lap.

"Whoa, dude, it's ok," James said, taken aback. Carlos flung his arms around James neck and buried his face into the taller boy's soft brown locks.

"We're gonna die James!"

"We're not gonna die. Calm down. I gotcha," James said, patting Carlos' back. He held him and tried desperately to soothe him. Logan and Kendall rushed into the tent a few minutes later, blankets over their head to keep dry.

"This storm is insane! Are you guys ok?" Logan asked, zipping up the tent. He was glad they decided to stake their tents in the ground or they would've blown away.

"Carlos, are you crying?" Kendall asked, sitting next to James and running a hand through Carlos spiky tufts of black hair.

"He's scared of the thunder and the, you know, scary story because of the wind," James explained, not wanting to blame Logan. Said boys face paled when he heard that Carlos was scared because of his stupid story.

"Oh Carlos, that was just a silly story I made up. It's not real," Logan said, rubbing Carlos' shaking shoulders. More thunder boomed and Carlos clutched James tighter, scrunching up his eyes. He just wanted this to be over. He didn't even know why he was so terrified of some thunder and wind. It was just so loud and reminded him of the big scary monsters he made up in his mind as a child.

"It's gonna be fine, just wait and see," Kendall said, bringing Carlos' feet into his lap. James held the youngster gently to his chest and Logan rubbed his back, hoping that the combined physical comfort would calm him down a bit.

It seemed to be working. Carlos relaxed and laid his head on James' chest and soon fell into a deep sleep, safe and protected from the monsters with his big brothers surrounding him.

**A/N Woot for cheeseball endings! I hope you liked this! Reviews are frosted cupcakes. I'm still taking requests, of course. I want to share something with you though: I suck at anything romantic. Bromance is like 2****nd**** nature to me but I'm so not romantic so I will do my best but it may suck horribly lol. Have an amazing weekend!**


	6. mavk444

**A/N Ok, shouting out to mavk 444 who requested this humorous one shot so shout out to her! This a unique and fun idea so thanks mav!**

**Summary: The boys overhear Gustavo talking about how his band has failed him and Big Time Rush try to prove to him they're not failures. **

Carlos, James, Logan and Kendall sat in a small circle in a cramped supply closet, trying to process what they had just overheard Gustavo telling Kelly. Several harsh sentences were used such as:

"Epic failures"

"Obnoxious"

"Greedy grubbers with squeaky voices mooching off my record label"

"The small one is chubby" (Carlos had to blink back tears for that one. He knew he was a bit stockier than the rest of them, but James had always assured him it was baby fat and it would go away one day.)

"They dance like geese"

And possibly the worst out of all of them: "Bad hair"

"I knew he was satan!" Logan suddenly blurted in the middle of their intense planning (they were all currently planning ways to get Gustavo to love them again, that was the whole point of their supply closet meeting)

"Maybe he's just having a bad day," Kendall said. He didn't really know why he was sticking up for Gustavo. He just didn't want to believe that their producer thought so negatively of the band after they had worked so hard to please him.

"He dissed my hair," James said, smoothing his long brown locks lovingly. "That hurt!"

"And he called me chubby," Carlos said. James rubbed his arm sympathetically.

"I know," Kendall said quietly. "And I don't dance like a goose."

"No, you don't buddy," Logan said, patting Kendall's back.

"So what are we going to do?" James asked. "We have to prove to Gustavo we're not a horrible band. What if he sends us home? I can't go back to Minnesota, guys. I can't handle the cold anymore! Dry skin, chapped lips, lackluster hair? Never again, guys! _Never again_!" James lowered his voice into a demonic like growl at the end. Logan rolled his eyes.

"We know James. And we're not going back to Minnesota… Are we Kendall?" Logan turned to look at the leader, and suddenly 3 sets of puppy dog brown eyes stared into his emeralds.

"Um, no? Maybe? I don't know guys I've never been horrible at something before! I know Gustavo's hard on us but I always thought he liked us, way deep down in the bottom of his shriveled black heart…" Kendall sighed. It was times like these he really hated having so much pressure on his shoulders to figure out "The Plans". Not that he would ever let any of his friends know that about him.

"I know!" Carlos exclaimed. "Let's kidnap him and force feed him our music over and over again while I hypnotize him into loving us with my magic stopwatch!" Carlos whipped out that annoying watch and swung it back and forth, and Logan snatched it from him.

"First of all, I thought we got rid of this thing. Second of all, We are not criminals we're a boy band. We can't kidnap anyone," Logan said.

Carlos huffed, along with James who thought there was nothing wrong with the Latinos plan. It was silent for a few more minutes when James finally thought up something.

"Hey, you know how Gustavo kind of resembles a large Grinch?" James asked. Kendall raised his eyebrows.

"He's green and furry?"

"Well no, but he does have a beard," James said. "I meant he's as cynical as the Grinch. I know I wouldn't touch him with a 10 and a half foot pole. So we all need to be Cindy-Lou Who's and sing around a Christmas tree and make him a feast so he grows a heart."

"That was so wrong," Logan said.

"Why? It's almost Christmas time," James said, even though it was only November.

"Ookay, I think these chemicals are starting to seep into your brain James," Kendall said, gesturing to the shelves of cleaning products before ushering his friends into the hallway. They were met with Gustavo standing there, staring at them like they were freaks, which they were. They were freaky dogs. The 4 teenagers screamed and grabbed at each other's clothing, trying to hide behind one another.

"What are you dogs doing in the closet?" Gustavo yelled.

"Um, cleaning?" James said, reaching in and grabbing a mop. Kendall took the mop and threw it to the side, feeling his anger start to build up at the evil man. He made his friends sad. Nobody called Carlos chubby and got away with it.

"We are not cleaning," Kendall said angrily, his voice a little higher pitched and whinier than usual, which was normal when he got upset. "We have something to say to you Gustavo-"

"No!" Logan, Carlos, and James shouted, pulling Kendall back by the shoulders.

"He's hungry!" Logan covered quickly. "He just wanted to say he's hungry. You know how he gets when he's starved. Look out world!" Logan chuckled nervously. Gustavo arched an evil eyebrow.

"You dogs are acting weird," he said. "Ok, go eat. You have the rest of the day off."

"Say what?" Kendall asked, confused. It was only 3:30 and Gustavo never let them off before 5.

"Yeah, your harmonies were good and Mr. X said you didn't injure anybody or anything today, which is progress, so go home." Gustavo turned around and left, and the boys turned to each other, flabbergasted.

"Ok, what just happened?" Carlos asked. "He hates us, why would he let us go home early?"

"Yeah, maybe this is just a big misunderstanding," Logan put out there. "You know, we never even actually heard Gustavo say 'Big Time Rush' while we were snooping on him."

"Yeah but he described us perfectly," James said. "Who else would he be talking about?"

"Then why would he let us go home early?" Kendall asked, wondering if Logan might be correct. After all, Logan was never wrong.

"He's not being nice to us," James said. "He wants to get rid of us! What's the point of us being here if he's just going to let us go. It's a waste of money on his part. He's going to fire us tomorrow. I can feel it."

"Well then we just have to work extra hard tomorrow to impress him so he doesn't want to fire us," Kendall said.

"And if that doesn't work?" Logan asked.

"We do what we do best," James said. "We grovel. Home, boys! So we can practice the kicked puppy look."

-Page break-

The next day, James, Carlos, Logan and Kendall got to the studio an entire hour early, bright and chipper even though Gustavo was half asleep at his desk, chugging coffee like water.

"Good morning Gustavo!" James exclaimed, taking his coffee away and replacing it with a huge, steamy cup from a very expensive coffee shop they passed on the way there.

"Um, good morning?" Gustavo said uncertainly. "Is this coffee from… Chez Caffeine?" Chez Caffeine was an extremely fancy coffee shop.

"Yep!" Carlos said eagerly. "Drink some!"

Gustavo stared at the coffee like it would blow up any moment, because he was a teenage boy once and teenage boys never did anything from the kindness of their hearts. He sniffed it experimentally before taking a small sip and moaning like he was in heaven. "Isn't coffee there like, 11 bucks a cup?"

Logan shrugged. "15. But anything for our favorite producer! Right guys?" He nudged his friends and they forcibly laughed with Logan, shouting agreements.

"Is it delicious?" James asked, and the boys hovered over Gustavo, grinning wildly and waiting for an answer.

"Oookay, please stop staring at me with those creepy clown grins. And yes, it's amazing." Gustavo said. "Well you dogs are an hour early so go ahead and warm up and I'll let you hear the new song I wrote for you."

"Ok!" The boys said enthusiastically, than bounded to the sound booth to warm up.

"He wrote a new song for us?" Kendall asked. "Why would he write a song for us before he fires us?"

"Maybe it's our last song," James said sadly. "We have to do our best on it. We have to prove that we are worth his time and money!"

The boys agreed and warmed up for 30 minutes before Kelly knocked on the door and led them to the music room, where she gave them their lyric sheets and Gustavo played them the song.

"That. Was. Amazing!" Carlos said when he finished, and Gustavo smiled cockily.

"Thank-"

"Seriously it was so good!" Logan said.

"It was so smooth, like melted butter," James put in.

"Best song ever!" Kendall said.

"And we will sing it with everything we got, right guys?" Logan said, and the boys cheered. Gustavo and Kelly shared confused looks.

"Um, are you boys feeling ok?" Kelly asked. 

"Yeah you're acting kind of… Weird," Gustavo said.

"You know what? We are great!" Kendall said. "When can we get started on the song? Now? Whenever you say so, Gustavo!"

"Don't you dogs want a couple days to memorize the lyrics?" Gustavo asked.

"Why make you wait when we can do it now!" Carlos said with a huge smile.

"Kelly, there's something wrong with my monkey dogs," he said under his breath, leaning towards his assistant. She nodded in agreement, but they went to the sound booth to practice the song. The boys worked hard for 6 hours straight, not even asking for water. Their voices started to sound a little harsh and Kelly brought them some fruit water.

"Why don't you boys take a little break, get some lunch?" Kelly asked.

"Nah, we don't need a break, we have work to do!" James said.

"Oh. Um, well Mr. X is ready for you anytime in the dance studio if you want to head down there," Kelly said.

"Sure thing Kelly!" Carlos said, giving the petite young woman a huge hug. James, Kendall and Logan followed suit, than went to meet with Mr. X.

"What was that?" Gustavo asked Kelly, waving at the boys when they waved at him as they passed by as if they were 4 year olds.

"I have no idea," Kelly said.

-Page break-

Mr. X had to practically force the boys out of the studio 4 hours later. They danced better than they ever had before, but it was obvious they were exhausted. They argued that they were fine for a good 10 minutes, but Mr. X had finally kicked them out, quite literally.

So now the 4 boys were walking back to Gustavo's office, rubbing their sore butts where Mr. X had kicked them.

"Wait, ssh!" Logan whispered when James was about to open the door. "They're talking." The 4 friends gathered close to the door and listened to Kelly and Gustavo's words.

"I just don't think they should sing this song," Gustavo said. "They sound horrible, their harmonies are all off. It's a waste of time."

"Don't you think we should give them a chance?" Kelly asked.

"I gave them plenty of chances. This is the last straw. They're lazy! We know who should be singing the song, and it's definitely not them. I want them fired."

"I guess you're right," Kelly said. "When should we break the news to them?"

"Tomorrow."

James gasped. "Lazy? We worked 10 hours straight today!"

Kendall shook his head. 'I just can't believe Gustavo would say this. I thought we meant something to him."

"I guess it's over," Logan whispered. He wasn't ready for it to be over. They worked so hard. They put their heart and soul into this band. And now it was all a lie.

"Even Kelly didn't stick up for us. We must really suck," Carlos said. They trudged to the lounge room, exhausted and sore and sweaty. Their throats hurt, their muscles ached, and they were so sad.

"This stinks!" Kendall said, sinking into a couch. James flopped next to him and buried his face in his shoulder.

"How could this be happening?' The pretty boy wailed. Kendall patted his head before gently pushing him onto Carlos, who gathered James in his arms and wailed with him. They pouted and sulked for a good 45 minutes, before Kelly came in.

"Guys? What are you still doing here? Mr. X sent you home an hour ago. Are you alight?"

"Peachy," Carlos said.

"Well you look terrible," Kelly said. They looked pale and well, depressed.

"Well why don't you boys take the day off tomorrow? You worked way too hard today." For some reason, the boys looked like Kelly had just slapped them across the face with that comment. She was starting to get a little worried. They started out the day a little too over eager and now they acted like all the life was zapped out of them, piled against each other in a sweaty heap on the couch.

"We don't have to. We'll be here," Logan said. He was never fired from anything before and he wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible.

"Ok, well go home and get some sleep," Kelly said. They nodded and sulked past her, dragging their feet and looking at her with huge, sad eyes as they passed by.

"It's not over yet," Kendall said later that night. He had called a midnight meeting in his room and they were all seated under a blanket fort with flashlights. "We can still impress him. I spent all night writing this." He handed his friends a slip of paper.

"What is it?" Carlos asked.

"It's a song," Kendall said. "About how he has been there for us through everything and how much he's changed our lives. He may be satan, but he's done a lot for us. Not many other people in the world have had the opportunities that he's given us. I figured Carlos could play the drums, Logan and I could play guitar and James can take the piano. We'll practice all morning, before Gustavo even gets there. He comes to work at 9, so we can get there at 6 am. The doors will be open because the janitor comes around that time. If he doesn't want to keep us around after the song than, well, at least we tried, right?"

James clapped Kendall on the shoulder. "It's a good idea buddy. "

"And the song is awesome, I can't believe you wrote this," Logan said.

"Let's do this!" Carlos said, putting his hand in, and the friends piled their hands together before breaking with a little cheer.

The next morning, the boys were working hard on making the song sound perfect. Gustavo came in at 9 am, hearing noise in the music room.

"What are you dogs doing in here?" He roared. "Why are you messing with my instruments?"

"We're not Gustavo, we're practicing!" Kendall said quickly.

"Practicing?" Gustavo asked, softening his voice a little. "What are those?" He pointed to a huge plate of every kind of doughnut you could imagine.

"They're doughnuts," James said quietly, staring at the floor. "We thought you might like them." Gustavo noticed that instead of wearing creepy, huge grins like they were yesterday, they now all stared at the floor or wall with the biggest pouts he had ever seen. They looked like they had been kicked in the stomach.

"What's up with you dogs?" Gustavo asked.

"Nothing," Logan said. "It's nothing."

"All right than," Gustavo said. "Well, I have some bad news for you guys. That song I wrote that I showed you last night? You won't be singing it."

James looked like he was ready to burst into tears. "We know," he said harshly, and Kendall nudged him gently to calm down.

"Look, Gustavo, we heard everything you said the past couple days," Kendall said. "But before you make any decisions, please just listen to this?" He turned to his friends and counted them in the opening.

The song was perfect. The harmonies were beautiful (Gustavo would never admit that!), they were on the beat, and every note was perfect. Gustavo was completely taken aback when he realized the touching lyrics were about him. They watched him expectantly when they finished the song, and when a stunned Gustavo didn't answer them, they made to leave.

"We're really sorry we let you down," Kendall said.

"Enjoy the doughnuts," Logan said, than ran after James, who had run from the room so no one could see him cry.

Carlos was the one who broke the solemn silence. He ran at Gustavo at full speed and jumped on the larger guy, wrapping his legs around his waist and clinging to his neck.

"Please don't let us go, man! We love you!" Carlos cried.

Gustavo looked to Kendall for help. "Kendall, take this off of me please and explain what the heck is going on, now!" He ordered, and the tall blonde pried the smaller boy off of Gustavo.

"We know we're fired," Kendall said. "We heard everything."

"Heard what?" Gustavo asked.

"That you think we're a failure and you don't want us to sing the song and-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Gustavo said, putting his hand up. He suddenly realized that his band must have overheard him and Kelly talking. "You heard all that?"

Carlos and Kendall nodded. Gustavo just rolled his eyes.

"Logan, James! Get in here, now!" He yelled, and they ran in, followed by Kelly who had found a distraught James in the hallway.

"What is going on? Why was James crying?" Kelly demanded, thinking someone was hurt.

"He's overreacting, as usual," Gustavo said. "They overheard us talking about Boy-shake and thought we were talking about them. That's what they get for eavesdropping!"

Kelly rolled her eyes. "Boys! Why would you ever think we were talking about you? "

"Well you sort of described us perfectly," Carlos said.

"Yeah, and you even told us we won't be singing the song you wrote us!"

"Yeah, that's because I have a better song that I originally for a band called 'boy-shake' that Griffin wanted me to sign, but they're lazy and can't sing. You're the band I think should sing it, not the other way around."

"Oh." That's all the boys could say. They suddenly felt extremely stupid. They shouldn't have been eavesdropping, but it was an honest mistake.

"So you really don't think I have bad hair?" James asked.

"Ugh, your hair is fine," Gustavo said.

"And we're sorry we made you boys think we would fire you, but you're the complete opposite of Boy-shake," Kelly said. "You haven't failed us at all. Right, Gustavo?"

"Right," Gustavo agreed. "I can't fire you dogs if I wanted to. Griffin made me sign a contract."

Kelly elbowed Gustavo in the stomach. "Be sensitive."

Gustavo sighed and looked at the boys, who stared at them expectantly. He gave them a small smile. "Thanks, dogs. The song was awesome. I can't believe you would go to such great lengths to impress me and you're not failures," he said in a computer-like, monotone voice. But they knew he meant every word.

The boys' faces all exploded into bright smiles. "Dog pile!" They shouted, jumping onto Gustavo and knocking him to the ground. Kelly laughed and jumped on him too.

"Dogs!" Gustavo roared, but they were pretty sure they heard him laugh.

**A/N Ok that was fun. I hope you all liked it! Sorry it was late, I promised this would be up last night and I fell asleep and I was busy all day. Something amazing happened to me! This really cute boy who has been flirting with me for a while, but we don't see each other much at all, gave me his number! I'm exploding with happiness. I will try to update tomorrow if I can. I'm super excited about tomorrow cause I get to work the shark tank for the first time and I have a really sweet leopard shark friend that I can't wait to visit. He's so cuddly and makes me pet him constantly! His first day in the tank was my first day on the job. But we haven't named him yet. I can go on and on about my lil marine animals! They are amazing! Thanks for reading! Review/request? Merci!**

**Ps sorry I didn't write lyrics for the song the boys sang! I really wanted to, my brain just drew a blank! Blah!**


	7. emmyloser

**A/N Hey guys! This is a request from emmy loser, who wanted to see a sick James being comforted by his buddies, so big shout out to her! You are definitely not a loser, emmy! Haha.**

**Summary: James is always faking ill to get out of things, and now his friends don't believe him when he's really sick.**

James stumbled into the kitchen, feeling miserable. His head was pounding so hard he hadn't even been able to sleep that night. He thought it would go away but now it was only getting worse.

James slumped into a chair at the kitchen table and groaned dramatically. Logan glanced up from his cereal.

"What's wrong with you?" The smaller boy asked, noticing James was still in his plaid jammies. "Why aren't you dressed yet?"

"I'm sick," James pouted.

"C'mere, lemme feel," Logan said, leaning forward and reaching his hand out to feel James' forehead. He placed his hand under James' bangs and kept it there for a few seconds. "You're not running a fever." Logan eyed James skeptically. "This doesn't have anything to do with the rehearsal today, does it?" James had a habit of claiming he was sick just to get out of things he didn't want to do. It wasn't that he was lazy it was just if there was something he wanted to do instead of the event he _had_ to do he would feign illness to get out of it. In this particular case, Logan knew that there was a Cuda Hair Care expo today and they were searching for their next sexy male Cuda model. But the time conflicted with a mandatory, tedious rehearsal Gustavo was making them do for an upcoming show because even though they had already rehearsed a kajillion times, the evil producer still thought they sucked.

"No," James said, looking mildly offended. "I honestly don't feel good."

"James you have been whining about not being able to go to this expo for weeks," Logan said. "And you're no stranger to pretending you're sick just so you can get your way. Remember the auditions for 'Joseph And The Technicolor Dreamcoat' in the 7th grade? You pretended to be puking everywhere just so you could skip the science fair to go to the auditions. And that time you had to do community service at the museum in the 5th grade for slapping the 3rd grader who stole Carlos' corndog? You got yourself in huge trouble by pretending to faint just so you could go on a date with Connie Mendler."

"Hey, Connie was hot and nobody steals corndogs from Carlos," James said defensively.

Logan sighed. "Well that was just 2 of about 1000 times. Bottom line, you always fake sick and it's no coincidence that you just happen to be sick the day of the Cudo expo. You don't even seem to be showing any symptoms."

"But my head hurts," James said, frustrated. How could Logan not believe him?

Logan tossed James a bottle of Aspirin. "Take these and get dressed."

"Humph. Kendall would believe me." James crawled up swirly and barged into his leader's bedroom. "Kendall! I'm sick."

Kendall laughed. "Yeah right. You just want to go show off your hair at the expo today. Sorry James, we gotta go to this rehearsal." Kendall patted his shoulder and squeezed past him so he could get downstairs.

"Carlos!" James yelled, and Carlos appeared in front of him a mere 2 seconds later with an eager, bright grin on his face and his helmet snug in his hands. The Latino always was too energetic in the mornings.

"Wassup buddy?"

James sighed. "Nobody believes that I'm sick, Carlos."

Carlos frowned and leaned in close to James, studying his face. "Well, you don't look or sound sick." Carlos touched his forehead. "And you're not hot. Isn't today that Cudo expo? Good luck getting Gustavo to let you go home, you're gonna have to do better than that."

"But I'm really sick, my head hurts. I'm all dizzy and-and weak," James said. Carlos just smiled.

"Sure you are buddy. But we better go now." Carlos skipped to swirly and threw himself down the plastic tube, whooping and hollering. James sighed. He could care less about that expo at the moment, his head was really hurting him. It was hard to think passed the consistent pounding. But he had to stick it out. This time, there was no way Logan would let him stay home.

James took a couple Aspirins and they were off to Roque Records. The first 30 minutes of rehearsal was miserable. The next 30 minutes was horrible. But the time 2 hours passed, it was unbearable for James. His head felt like a million tiny daggers were jabbing themselves into every inch of his brain. He felt dizzy and unsteady and worst of all, his stomach was churning uncomfortably, as if he was going to throw up.

"Logie?" James asked when they finished rehearsing a number.

"Yeah, what's up?" Logan asked, not even looking at his ill friend. He was busy trying to perfect a certain step Mr. X had given him.

"I think I really need to go home, I don't-"

"Dude! Enough of that," Logan said. "You missed the expo, so what? Work on your dance moves, ok?"

James flinched, taken aback. Logan was acting sort of cruel. Did nobody realize he was so sick? "But Logan-"

"James!" Logan said loudly, making James cringe. A jolt of pain shot through his brain and suddenly, every sound seemed to be amplified in his ears, making his head scream in pain. "Go practice your moves, I'm serious."

"Fine, I don't need this," James mumbled. He stomped out of the studio and into the bathroom, hoping that a few minutes of quiet and some cold water on his face would calm his headache down. But instead, the bright fluorescent lighting nearly knocked him to his feet. He closed his eyes and groaned, fumbling for the light switch. He sighed in relief when he was cloaked in darkness, but his stomach flipped and he raced to a stall, feeling by hand for the toilet just in time to empty out all its contents.

James whimpered. This hurt, like nothing he ever felt before. The retching only made it worse. He only hoped he made it all into the toilet as he continued to violently throw up. Finally, the heaves ceased and he slumped to the bathroom floor, alone and in tears.

"Dude, where's James it's been 15 minutes," Carlos asked Logan. He had noticed James was looking a bit pale, and then he had just disappeared.

Logan shook his head. "Probably pouting about the hair thing he missed today. I'll go find him." Logan checked the bathroom first, because that's always where the brunette went to pout so he could do his hair. But James wasn't at the mirror fixing his hair. It was dark, it smelled like stomach acid, and Logan could hear faint whimpers. He knew immediately something wasn't right, so he flipped on the light to try and find his friend.

James screamed, followed by tiny sobs, and Logan raced to his side in a panic. "James! What happened?"

James curled in on himself, squeezing his eyes shut and putting his hands on his throbbing head. "Logan, turn the light off," he tried to say calmly. Logan was confused, but he shut the lights back off and found his way back to James. He kneeled beside his ailing friend and gathered his head in his lap.

"James, what's hurting?" Logan asked.

"M-my head. I think it's going to explode. Please whisper," James said in a barely audible voice, and Logan's stomach dropped. He could already tell James was suffering from a migraine.

"Ok buddy," Logan whispered. "Do lights and sounds hurt?"

"Yes."

"Are you nauseous?"

"I threw up," he said, a little embarrassed.

"That's ok buddy, it happens. Do you think you can walk? We need to get you home-"

"No," James said, clinging onto Logan's waist. "I wanna stay in the dark."

"Ok buddy," Logan said, knowing that driving all the way home would be painful for James. "We gotta get you to the lounge though, is that ok?"

James nodded, and Logan sent a quick text for Kendall and Carlos to meet him in the lounge before helping James to his feet.

"I'm dizzy Logan," James said, swaying where he stood, but Logan had one steady hand on his shoulder and the other on his waist.

"I know buddy, I gotcha," Logan whispered, slowly walking him to the door. "I'm gonna open the door and it's gonna be bright, just close your eyes and we'll get you to the lounge ok?"

James nodded and Logan opened the door and stepped out. James stifled a scream and buried his face in Logan's shirt.

"Whoa, is he ok?" Kendall asked loudly, running up them with Carlos right behind him.

"Shh," Logan shushed them. "He has a migraine. We need to get him to the lounge so he can sleep. Lights and sounds are extremely painful for him."

"L-Logie," James whimpered, swaying on his feet. His vision was blurry and he felt so dizzy, he couldn't even tell if he was standing up or not. "I can't see."

"James? You don't look so good," Kendall whispered in worry. He rushed forward to help Logan catch the tall boy when he suddenly stumbled forward, about to facepalm onto the carpet. Kendall gathered him up in his arms and quickly carried him to the lounge, where he laid James onto the couch and Logan shut off all the lights except one very dim light so they could see what they were doing.

"Wh-what happened?" Carlos asked, scared. "Is he asleep?"

"He blacked out, it happens sometimes with migraines," Logan said, trying to keep his cool. "You guys just have to stay quiet. If he wakes up, try to keep him calm. I'm going to go get a couple things." Logan disappeared, and Kendall sat next to James while Carlos sat on the floor in front of where his tall friend lay unconscious.

"I didn't even know James got migraines," Carlos whispered.

"Me either," Kendall said. "This better be his first one or else I'm gonna beat the Cuda out of him if he's been hiding it from us."

"You know, he did try to tell us he wasn't feeling good today," Carlos said slowly, cringing as he remembered James complaining he was sick. "And we just blew it off as nothing."

James suddenly groaned, hands immediately reaching up to cradle his head. "Owww," He whimpered as he slowly came too, disorientated and sick. He was afraid he might throw up again. "My head," he cried, and Kendall gently laid his head in his lap and stroked his temple, hoping it would soothe his excruciating pain.

"Ssh, Logan's gonna help. He'll be right back."

"Kendall," James whimpered, burying his face in his chest. Kendall held him as gently as he would a baby, afraid he might hurt his friend further. Logan couldn't have come back soon enough with a water bottle, ice pack, and some pills.

"James, hey, it's ok," Logan cooed, laying him down so his head was back on Kendall's lap. "Kendall's going to give you this medicine and we're gonna put an icepack on your head ok buddy?"

James nodded, even though he barely made out a word Logan was saying. He just trusted that his younger friend would make him feel better. He felt Kendall tilt his head up and place pills on the back of his tongue, than pressed a water bottle to his lips. He gulped the cold drink thirstily. Than he was resting back on Kendall's lap and something very cold was placed on the top of his forehead. It made him jump, but he heard soothing words whispered to him and he relaxed.

"Carlos, go turn off the light," Logan said. "James you just rest ok?"

"Don't leave me," James said, feeling a tiny amount of relief when that horrible amount of light was finally shut off. But he wouldn't feel completely comforted until he was sure all 3 of his friends were surrounding him.

"We're right here, we aren't going anywhere," Carlos said, his voice a tiny whisper. He and Logan crowded around James to let him know they were there, although they were afraid to touch him. James curled up In a ball against Kendall and fell asleep, and the darkness lulled his friends to sleep too.

They boys all awoke at the same time a couple hours later. Logan immediately turned on the dim light and checked on James.

"James, you feeling ok?" He asked worriedly. James nodded.

"I feel a little better," he said with a huge sigh of relief. The pain was finally gone. He only had a little bit of an ache left above his eyes. The migraine left him feeling completely drained. He wanted nothing more than to cuddle in his bed and sleep for 10 more hours.

"How are your eyes? Is everything still loud?" Logan asked.

"No, my head only hurts a little bit now. And I'm tired."

"How about your stomach? Are you feeling sick?" Kendall asked.

James held his stomach and thought a moment. "No, my nausea went away. I just want to go home."

"Ok, let's just go slow," Kendall said. He helped James too his feet and held his arms out just in case he swayed. "You ok?"

"I'm ok," James said, regaining his sense of balance. "What exactly happened to me Logan?"

"Migraine," Logan said.

"And this better be the first one," Kendall chimed in. "That's not something you should be hiding from us."

James scowled. "It was my first one, and I tried to tell you guys but you didn't believe me."

"Told ya," Carlos squeaked to Kendall guiltily.

James looked at all his friends closely and saw they all 3 looked extremely guilty. Carlos chewed his mouth, Kendall refused to make eye contact, and Logan fidgeted with his fingers. He realized he could keep the whole guilt trip going if he felt like it.

"That was the most miserable experience of my life," James said a little dramatically. He pressed a hand to his forehead and winced. "Oh, dizzy spell."

"We're sorry dude," Logan said.

"Yeah we didn't know man," Kendall said, slinging an arm around his shoulders. "Next time we'll listen to you."

"If it wasn't for us, you wouldn't have puked or passed out," Carlos said sadly. "Do you hate us?"

James sniffled. "I don't know."

"Please don't hate us," Carlos begged. "What can we do for you to forgive us?"

James smiled and spread his arms, making "Come here" motions with his fingers. "Hugs."

Kendall, Carlos, and Logan grinned as they (gently) smothered their best friend with their famous forgiveness hugs.

**A/N How cheesy can I get? Haha! I hope you like this emmy! I hope you all liked it actually. Thanks for all your reviews, and sorry for making you guys wait! Have a great weekend! Review? Merci! XO**


	8. xxsmileyXD

**A/N Hey again! This is a request from xx smiley xD, so shout out to her for making me step out of my angsty bromance comfort zone and write a… Lomille! Woot! Haha.**

**Summary: Logan doesn't understand why Camille would ever want to be with a guy like him, but after a night gone wrong, he discovers he's her superhero. This chapter will be rated T for some scary themes.**

Logan Mitchel never had the most confidence in the world. He thought of himself as too quiet, too homely, too geeky. The only ounce of coolness he ever has is when he's surrounded by his tough hockey-playing friends. Without them, he was a loser. He was shy, he stuttered, he was the ultimate bully victim, and quite frankly, he had big ears. He never knew why he thought that, but to him is ears were like giant dumbo ears. He guessed it all started because some kid in 3rd grade had made fun of his ears by saying "Hey dumbo, you gonna fly away with those big ol' things?" And for some reason, that comment had deeply affected him.

Not only that, but he hated his smile. It was crooked, so he thought he looked like a Picasso. It never once crossed through his mind that he was a gorgeous darling who had girls just lining up to talk to him. Because who would ever like a doctor dork in training who rambled endlessly about boring facts, who was uptight and scared of his own shadow and relied on his friends for any kind of social life. In Logan Mitchel's mind, he was an all-around loser. Just once he wanted to do something outrageously cool to impress one girl, Camille Roberts.

Camille Roberts was the picture of self-confidence. Maybe a little too confident, as she sometimes came across as a little intense, but she made up for it in her jaw-dropping beauty. Creamy skin, dark curls, and caring, soulful eyes. She was hilarious, brave, and just the coolest girl you could ever meet. Every guy's dream girl and for some reason unbeknownst to Logan, she had picked him. Her eyes were drawn to him, the scrawny nerd. Not James the buff, sexy model. Not Kendall, the laid-back blonde Adonis. Not even Carlos, the adorable little ball of energy that even The Jennifer's loved. Nope, she had picked plain old Logan.

So those thoughts were the reason why Logan was waiting anxiously for his date, Camille, to arrive to the date he had spent 2 days planning. It was just a picnic in a really nice park, far away from city lights and traffic, but he had spent hours picking out the perfect spot and an entire day cooking the food, than bought a wild flower arrangement of all kinds of different, vibrant colors to match her personality. He felt like a girl when he spent nearly an hour trying to pick out an outfit (finally James had Kendall hold the little boy down so the pretty boy could dress him in a nice pair of jeans, black t-shirt, and a blazer. No sweater vests or cardigans tonight!) And even though he had known Camille for a couple months now and had taken her out on several dates, his stomach was fluttering and his palms were sweaty because tonight he was going to officially ask her if she wanted to be his girlfriend. Maybe they would even share their first kiss.

Logan sighed heavily and looked at his watch. It read 8:32. They had already missed the sunset they were supposed to watch together. Logan was worried. When 15 minutes had only passed, he was worrying it had something to do with him. But now that 30 minutes had passed, he couldn't shake off this bad feeling that maybe something happened. But he knew he was a worrywart and decided to wait just a bit longer.

It was now 9:00 and the fluttering feeling turned to a dreadful knot in the pit of his stomach. Camille wasn't answering her phone. Logan quickly dialed her dad's number and paced back and forth muttering "Come on, come on, come on." Finally he heard her dad's voice answer, "Hello?"

"Hi Mr. Roberts, is Camille there?" Logan tried to keep the anxiety out of his voice.

"Um, no, she left over an hour ago, isn't she with you?" Mr. Roberts said slowly, beginning to grow worried as well.

"No Sir, I'll go find her," Logan said, hanging up the phone. No sooner than he hopped in his car did his phone ring, his caller id reading "Camille"

Logan's heart jumped and he quickly answered. "Camille! Where are you?"

"I-I'm not really sure," Camille answered. For once her voice wasn't strong and confident. In fact, she sounded kind of scared.

"What do you mean?" He asked, the knot growing tighter. Something was wrong. Camille sniffled a little.

"I'm lost, Logan. I ran out of gas and I thought I could just walk to a gas station I had passed by on the way but I guess I made a wrong turn. I have no idea where I am. It's all industrial and it's dark. C-can you come get me?"

"Of course, I'm on my way. You must be at that industrial park off of Boyce Avenue," Logan explained, speeding down the road. He knew that area was a bad area, a lot of gang violence happened over there and he was scared to death that Camille would get caught in the crossfire. "Listen to me, stay in the streetlights as much as you can and stay on the phone with me. I'm about 20 minutes away."

"Please hurry Logan, I'm scared. I keep seeing shadows."

"It's going to be ok, just hold on," Logan said. He stayed on the phone for a few more minutes, trying to comfort Camille by telling random silly stories, when he heard the sound of a car pull up on the other side of the line and a man's voice talking to her.

"Camille, who is that?" Logan asked protectively, stepping on the gas a little harder.

"No, thank you," He heard her say to the man as politely as possible, but her voice was shaking. "I-I don't know," She told Logan. "But I'm just walking away. He wanted me to get in the car with him and he was going to pay me."

"Oh God," Logan said, hoping the man would give up easily. He knew Camille was most likely dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, but the side of town she was on, any girl on the sidewalk would be considered a prostitute. "Just keep walking, Cam. He thinks you're a prostitute."

"A prostitute?" Camille's voice was surprised. "Do I look like a prostitute or something? What is he thinking? I have half a mind to slap him!"

"No! Don't slap him. You did the right thing. Is he following you?"

"No, he turned around," Camille said, and Logan breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm going to have an ulcer by the time I pick you up," Logan joked.

"Nah, I'm tough. I can take him," Camille said naively. "You don't have to worry."

Logan was about to make a joke back, but he heard the same car engine over the phone and the man's voice again, though he couldn't make out what he was saying.

"Camille, walk, fast," He instructed. "Don't run. What happened?"

"He circled around and blocked me. I'm walking away," Camille said. "He's following me, yelling for me to get in the car." Camille was crying now, cursing herself mentally for getting in this situation. "He just got out of the car, Logan. Hurry."

"Shit," Logan uncharacteristically said under his breath. "Just keep walking. Is he coming after you?"

"H-he's running. Logan, help!" Those were the last words he heard her say before he heard her take off on a run and the phone clatter to the sidewalk. The line immediately went dead when the phone broke.

Logan gripped the steering wheel, his heart pounding against his ribcage. His foot was heavy on the gas pedal and the trees and streetlights around him were a blur as the speedometer rose to 75, to 80, to 85 and then 90 in a matter of a couple minutes. He raced onto Boyce Avenue and slowed down a bit so he could look for Camille.

Nothing but anger and adrenaline burst through his veins at what he saw next. Camille was on the ground and her attacker was beating her and pulling her by the hair as he tried to get her into his car. Camille was putting up a fight but she was a small girl and this was a full grown man. She was clearly bloody and exhausted.

"Get your hands off of my girl," Logan yelled as he ran towards the disgusting man, his voice sharp and loud.

"Logan," Camille sobbed, and Logan felt a surge of strong protection he had never felt before. He hated this man for touching her, and he pushed him off of her with all his strength, which was quite a lot.

Camille's attacker threw punches, but Logan easily blocked them and returned them. The man received a crunching blow to the jaw and a powerful fist to the stomach. Instead of fighting back, the coward stumbled to his feet, ran to his car, and took off like a bat out of hell.

Logan was literally seeing red. His chest heaved, his fists balled up as he tried to regain control of himself, which was easy when he turned to see Camille's tiny body on the ground, bleeding and crying. She needed him right now. His chest constricted painfully with worry, not knowing the extent of her injuries.

"Camille, are you ok?" He asked, rushing to her side. All he wanted to do was hold her tightly, and that's what he did. He gathered her up in his powerhouse arms and cradled her to his chest, whispering sweet words into her curls.

"I'm fine," Camille said, trying to be strong although she was shaken to her core. She even tried to crack a smile. "You looked like the incredible Hulk over there, minus the green."

Logan closed his eyes and smiled. He didn't want her to see that he was crying now that the adrenaline was gone. "What hurts?" He asked, wiping his tears away quickly so he could check on her injuries.

"My face, basically," Camille said, pressing her hand to her nose and lips. When she pulled her hand away, it was bloody.

"Busted lip, bloody nose, I can take care of that," Logan said softly. "How about your head, does it hurt? How many fingers am I holding up?"

"7? No, 12?" Camille joked, though he was really holding up 3. He gave her a look and she grinned. "3. My head is fine, Logan."

"Ok, come on. Let's get you home." Logan helped her into the car and drove her to The Palmwoods while she called her dad to assure him she was fine. She didn't tell him what happened in case he made her come home. She wanted to stay with Logan tonight.

Several minutes later, Logan and Camille were alone in 2J. The other boys were out doing whatever boys do on a Saturday night. Camille was laying on the orange sectional and Logan was tending gently to her injuries by dabbing cold clothes to her nose and Neosporin on the cut right beneath her lip. Any deeper and it would have needed stitches but Logan got it to stop bleeding quickly. When her face was cleaned up, Logan noticed that on her small, delicate arms dark purple bruises were already beginning to form. He could even see the outline of a couple handprints on her bicep. It made Logan feel sick that anyone would ever want to harm her.

'You ok?" Camille asked, watching Logan slowly trace her bruises.

Logan shook his head once. "I can't believe tonight happened. That you were almost kidnapped… What if I had come 2 minutes later? He would've had you in his car by then. Who knows what he would've done to you." Logan choked on his words and fresh tears sprung to his eyes. Camille leaned up and embraced him, stroking his back to comfort him.

"But he didn't, Logie. You were amazing tonight. It's my fault I thought I could handle walking to a gas station by myself, and you came and saved me. You didn't even faint."

Logan held onto Camille tightly. He never wanted to let go. "It's not your fault, Cam. You shouldn't have had to go through such horrible things."

Camille pulled back and held Logan's face in her hands. She loved everything about his face. That crooked, sexy smile, those brown eyes so dark they were almost black, and his cute nose. Even his ears were cute. "You know, it wasn't all horrible. You were like a superhero tonight. My superhero."

Logan blushed, his face burning in Camille's hands, something she found endearing. "I couldn't let him hurt you. Y-you mean too much to me, Camille."

Camille smiled and leaned in close, pressing her lips gently to Logan's soft ones. She absolutely melted, pressing her chest against his so she could feel his pounding heart. It started off as the slowest, gentlest kiss ever imagined and slowly turned more passionate as they tangled their fingers in each other's hair and continued kissing for a couple more minutes before pulling away breathlessly.

Logan rested his forehead on Camille's staring into her eyes. "Nobody will ever hurt you again Camille," He promised sweetly.

**A/N Tada! Hope you liked! I don't know any LA streets so I named one after the band Boyce Avenue, who probably named their band off of some place not in LA.. Oh well. Please review and tell me what you think? The other night I dropped my bf off at his house and he lives in some strange part of town I never been too, well I was driving, driving, driving and I got lost in a really bad industrial part of town where bad things happen. He wanted me to call him when I got home to make sure I didn't die and I called him an hour later and he was freaking out and I was like whoops I got lost, and he was like I told you to call me if you got lost! But I wanted to figure it out myself. So I guess that was the inspiration for this? Lol. Thanks for reading/reviewing! Love ya'll!**


	9. jatie luv, custom stories, and freakier

**A/N This is a request from custom stories co, jatie luv, and freakier then freaks. I suck at romance so just wear your blinders: You pick their age and if their lovey duvy or just cute friends. I'm sorry if it sucks, I hope you guys still like it!**

**Summary: Mrs. Knight takes Kendall, Carlos and Logan go to a hockey game. James stays behind because of a modeling gig and to watch Katie, but she gets the flu and James takes care of her. Cotton candy fluff!**

"Katie, why aren't you eating the pancakes I made you?" James asked, shoveling a huge bite of syrupy cake into his mouth. Katie just looked at him in disgust. He was in an overly happy mood because some modeling job hired him for their hair care products. He was even missing a hockey game with his best friends for it, that's how excited he was for the job.

"They're burnt," Katie replied, pushing the breakfast around on her plate when truthfully, it looked delicious. She just had a growing, twisting feeling in the pit of her stomach that refused to go away. She hoped she wasn't getting sick.

James shrugged, unfazed by the insult. He reached over and pushed her pancakes onto his plate. "Whatever, more for me!"

Katie just shook her head at her buffoon of a friend. "I'm going to my room. Don't bother me."

"What crawled up your butt?" James asked, but Katie disappeared quickly to her room. James finished his breakfast and went to his bathroom to get ready for his job. First impressions were everything, after all. He styled his hair and whitened his teeth and dressed in his best outfit. It was 2 hours before he slid down swirly to tell Katie he was off to model. He entered her room to find it empty, though.

"Hey Katie, where are you?" James called, confused. Katie knew the rules that she wasn't to leave the apartment without permission. She didn't answer him, but he heard weird sounds coming from inside her bathroom. He knocked on the door softly. "Katie, I'm leaving now."

There was silence for a few seconds, than a cough and she answered in a shaky voice, "'Kay, See you tonight James."

James was about to leave, but something kept his feet cemented in front of the door. "Um, are you ok Katie?"

"I'm fine!" The young girl answered a little too quickly, her voice high-pitched.

"Oh. Well I was going to ask if you wanted to ride with me to the modeling agency, see if you can find any too-trusting clients to scam money from."

"No thanks!" Katie said, and her voice sounded kind of pinched, like something was hurting her. James was worried now. He tried to open the door, but he found it was locked.

"Katie, open the door. I know something's wrong."

"Can you just leave, please?" Katie asked. James sounded genuinely concerned but she didn't want him to see her like this. Even though she just had a little, innocent crush on him, she did not want him to see her laid out on the bathroom floor while puking her guts out. She hoped James would get the hint and just leave, but she knew he was still there when she leaned over the toilet once again to vomit what was left in her stomach.

"Katie!" James said, modeling job forgotten about as soon as he heard her retching. He grabbed his hair in worry and scanned the hall for anything he could break the door down with. But then he slapped himself on his forehead when an idea dawned on him. He grabbed a metal hanger from Katie's room and used the end to unlock the door, than rushed to Katie's side so he could hold her hair back. Her tiny body quaked harshly with heaves and her skin was translucently pale.

"Oh Katie, why didn't you tell me you were sick?" James asked when the vomiting subsided.

"Didn't think it mattered," Katie said breathlessly. "I'm fine, and you're going to be late for your modeling job. You should really go."

"Do you really think I care about that right now?" James asked, brushing her bangs back so he could feel for fever. "You're burning up, Katie."

"I'm fine," Katie tried to say at the same time a particularly painful cramp invaded her stomach. She groaned in pain and clutched her middle, squeezing her eyes shut.

"What? What is it?" James asked, confused.

"My stomach," She choked, and she didn't even fight it when James gathered her into his strong arms and held her against his chest.

"You're ok," James whispered. "It'll be over soon."

"M'tired," Katie mumbled into his neck, exhausted from all the excessive vomiting. She didn't even think she could walk.

"Let's get you to bed," James said. Katie nodded and tried to stand up, but James held her firmly in place. He scooped his arm beneath her knees before standing up and carrying her to her bedroom. He then laid her on her bed and tucked a blanket around her shivering shoulders.

"Are you going to be alright?" James asked gently, sitting beside her and carding a hand through her long brown hair.

"Yeah, I guess," Katie answered. "But what about your job? You're already late."

James shook his head. "That doesn't matter. I'm not going to leave you here sick, ok? No matter how bad you want to get rid of me."

Katie gave a tiny smile. "Will you sing to me, like Kendall does when I'm sick?"

James nodded and started singing "Worldwide" while stroking her hair. Katie let his voice and the gentle touch lull her stomachache away until she was off to dreamland.

**A/N Short, but hopefully you liked it! Please review? It means a lot! I'm always taking requests.**

**Ps, Anna requested a oneshot about Kendall getting in an accident and I decided to post it as a multi-chap. So if you're reading this Anna, your request is posted separate than this. Thanks for reading!**


	10. rain tastes good and surfing polar bear

**A/N Thanks for all your reviews! This is for surfing polar bear and rain tastes good, who wanted to see that sketchy party I mentioned earlier. Huge shout out to you guys, thanks! Once again, this is rated T for adult themes teehee! I need to stop this.**

"Hey James," Kendall said cheerfully when he walked into his apartment and saw his best friend tying his black Converse.

"Hey Kendall, what's up," James said.

Kendall shrugged. "Nothing much. Where are you going looking all snazzy like that?" He noticed that James was dressed in his best jeans and red button up shirt.

"I'm going to that huge party across the street," James said excitedly. "I can't believe I was actually invited! Do you know how many babes will be there?"

"Wait, you were invited to Jett's party?" Kendall asked.

"Yep, jealous?" James teased lightheartedly.

"Um first of all, ew. 2nd, that party is going to be bad news James. I really don't think you should go."

James raised an eyebrow. "What? Why can't I go?"

"Because there's going to be a lot of stuff going on that you don't want to be a part of," Kendall said. Sometimes he wished James wasn't so naïve. He had heard that Jett threw some wild parties at his friend's mansion and stuff went on that James pretty much had no clue of. For an 18 year old, James was incredibly innocent and sheltered. It was a curse and a blessing at the same time.

James just scoffed. "Whatever, you really are jealous you weren't invited."

Kendall shook his head. "No, that's not it James. You've never been to a Hollywood party before. They're different than the ones in Minnesota in our parent's basement. There will be, you know, drugs and stuff going on."

"That's just a Hollywood myth," James said dismissively. "I'll be fine, dude." James went to leave, but Kendall stopped him with a strong hand to his chest.

"No James, I'm setting my foot down. You are not going to that party," Kendall said firmly. James chuckled, wondering if he was actually being serious.

"You can't stop me from going. I have to be there, my reputation depends on it."

"So you seriously want your reputation to be that you're some loser druggie at a party?" Kendall said. He knew how naïve he could be. He was worried he would be offered a drink or a drug and he'd take it, not knowing what it was. Or maybe someone would drop something in his soda, or the cops would come and he'd get arrested… The scenarios in Kendall's head were endless and James was oblivious to it all.

"You know what, I was joking but you really are jealous, aren't you?" James asked, feeling a bit angry. Kendall always tried to take everything from him it seemed.

"I just don't want to see you hurt James," Kendall said. "I'm serious. Don't go to this party. We can play dome hockey instead."

"I don't want to play dome hockey with you, I want to go to this party," James said with a scowl, trying to walk past again. Kendall shoved him back with both hands this time, getting frustrated.

"Dude! Give it up, you aren't going," Kendall yelled.

"You can't tell me what to do," James said, struggling to get through. Kendall put up a fight for several minutes but James finally pushed him aside roughly.

"Fine, I give," Kendall said, pissed off now. "Go to the damn party, what do I care?" He watched James leave the apartment without a second glance, and he punched the wall just to get the anger out. He just had this horrible feeling that something was going to go terribly wrong.

-Page break-

James had been at the party for an hour now and truthfully, it wasn't as great as he thought it would be. He didn't know anybody and all he could think about was the crappy fight he had with Kendall. He felt bad but at the same time, Kendall shouldn't have been so jealous. The leader always had something to say about everything. But James was starting to wonder if Kendall really was right this time (well who was he kidding, that boy was _always_ right).

The party was really creeping him out. It was super dark and everyone was either acting wildly obnoxious or making out with each other on the couches. He was pretty sure not one kid was sober which confused him because half the guests at the party weren't 21 yet. Wasn't it illegal to drink under 21? He was offered a drink many times but he felt he should say no. Mrs. Diamond always taught him the dangers of drinking and told him to stay above the influence.

The second thing that freaked him out was he entered one room mistaking it for a restroom but it was really a bedroom with a small circle of kids on the floor. He started coughing immediately as smoke billowed up his nostrils, making him dizzy.

"Hey dude," some kid said in a slow, weird voice. "Come sit with us. Take a drag." He held up something that looked like a cigarette but he knew immediately that it wasn't.

"Um no thanks, sorry," James said, quickly closing the door. Suddenly this party wasn't so fun anymore. He wanted to go home now.

He was on his way through the large house and towards the front door when a girl who was much older than him and clearly had been drinking stepped in his path. She had long blonde curls and a short skirt on, not to mention her shirt was half unbuttoned, showing a lot of cleavage.

James cleared his throat and forced his eyes to stare ahead and not down. He gave her a small smile. "Excuse me, I gotta go now," He said, but she ran a hand along his chest and stood extremely close to James. He could smell her breath. It smelled strangely like strawberries and alcohol.

"But you just got here, baby," she said with a pout. She still fondled James' chest and he stepped back, feeling awkward. He didn't even know this girl, why was she touching him?

"Yeah but I really have to go, my friend is waiting for me at home and-"

"Ssh," the slutty girl whispered, putting a finger to his lips. And without warning, her lips just engulfed his as she pressed her chest against his and took his face in her hands. James tried to pull her away but she was rough. Her hands were everywhere, pulling him to her. On his head, his neck, shoulders. James could slowly feel his will power fade as his hormones started to take control. Suddenly he wasn't fighting so much anymore, until the girl ghosted her hands over his hips and dangerously close to his crotch. James' hips automatically jerked back and he pulled away, panting.

"Um, I don't know you," he said nervously, more than a little freaked out. Why was this girl randomly trying to seduce him? He knew he was good looking but even he liked to take things slower than this.

"So?" The girl said, and there was that pout again. She leaned up to James' ear and whispered softly, "Let's go into that room, for a little privacy," before nibbling on his ear lobe. James forced back a moan and once again, pulled away. But the girl was fast. Before he knew it, she was practically dragging him into a nearby room with her hands all over. This time she grabbed his crotch and James whimpered in surprise.

"N-no," he said, swatting her hand away on instinct. He felt completely violated now and his hormones were nearly out of control. But he was a good guy and refused to go in that room with her.

"I need to go now," James said. He didn't want to hurt her but he just wanted her to go away.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" A strong voice said behind James, and he turned around to see a muscular guy glaring at him angrily. "That's my girlfriend you're groping!"

"What?" James asked, shocked. "I wasn't groping her, she just attacked me with her lips and-"

Suddenly, the larger guy pulled his powerful arm back and let his fist collide with James' nose. James staggered but refused to fall. He held his nose carefully to feel blood gushing from it. He was sure it wasn't broken but _jeez_ it hurt.

Before James could say anything, the bully grabbed him by the back of the neck and grinned. "Hey, you're that little kid who wouldn't drink anything. How about we change that? Hey guys, I got a fresh one!" The guy yelled to his buddies. They laughed and motioned for him to come over.

'You're coming with me buddy," The jerk said, dragging poor James over to his crowd of friends.

-Page break-

Kendall sighed heavily on the orange couch between Carlos and Logan. They looked at him with questioning glances.

"What's up with you?" Logan asked, not tearing his eyes off the tv screen.

"Nothing," Kendall said softly, when really he was worried to death about James. He just sensed that something was not ok. Maybe he was just being paranoid or protective or whatever but it was a sick feeling deep in his gut that told him over and over that James needed help.

But what if James didn't need help? He would've crashed a party for nothing and James would be pissed at him for it. And he definitely didn't want to tell Logan and Carlos what was going on. If they found out their friend was in danger, they would want to go with him and no way was Kendall allowing those 2 in a party like that.

Kendall finally made up his mind that he had to go check on James. Just peek in and make sure James was having a good time and then leave. "I'm going for a walk," he told the boys, than left for the party.

It wasn't hard to get in. The door was half open and everyone around him was wasted. Yeah, this wasn't going to be good. Kendall scoured the house for James until he heard loud shouting in a corner. He looked over to see some poor soul surrounded by a group of guys with a beer bong shoved in his mouth. Kendall looked closer through the darkness and the disco light and saw that it was James who was being forced the poison liquid. It was obvious he was struggling and gagging. Kendall felt a surge of anger course through his veins and he marched over to the buffoons hurting his friend.

"James!" Kendall said, and the taller boy looked up with scared and teary eyes. The guys all laughed.

"Aw, look at poor Jamesy! Baby gonna cry?" One taunted.

"What are you doing to him? Stop!" Kendall yelled. But a bully shoved more alcohol into James mouth. His young body had never had alcohol before and the quantity he was being forced to swallow in such a small amount of time made him throw up all over the carpet. The guys laughed and jumped back, shouting insults. Kendall was outraged. He knew it was stupid because these guys were older and there were several of them, but he slugged the bully closest to him right in the mouth. The laughs died down and the guys stared evilly at Kendall.

"Kendall, no," James said in between choking, and he got a kick to the stomach from a bully. He fell to his side, clutching his stomach and groaning.

"You guys could kill him," Kendall growled, his eyes dark with anger. His fists were balled up and his biceps were shaking. "Next person to touch my friend gets the pulp beat out of him."

"We're not scared of you, you little-" Wham! Kendall knocked out the taunting bully in one punch.

"Anybody else?" Kendall asked, and the guys all scurried away from the boy in shock. He ran to James' side and pulled him into a sitting position. "Buddy! Are you ok?"

James shook his head. He felt like a complete helpless idiot, covered in vomit, tears, alcohol and blood. He had never been so humiliated in his life. "Can you just get me outta here?" He asked timidly. Kendall nodded in sympathy and helped the dizzy boy to his feet and out into cold, fresh air. He set James down in the grass besides the house and sat next to him.

"Kendall I don't feel-" James couldn't even get the words out before he started vomiting again. Kendall rubbed his back, wondering if he should take him to the hospital just in case he had alcohol poisoning.

"I can't believe those idiots did this to you," Kendall whispered. He wanted to go right back in there and knock out every one of those guys but James desperately needed him right now. He pulled out a tissue from his pocket and wiped away the blood and vomit from James' face, than stroked his alcohol-soaked hair from his unfocused eyes so he could stare into them. "Are you sure you're ok, James?"

James shoulders quaked and he leaned into Kendall's chest. "It was horrible, Kendall. This freaky girl kept touching me and her lips were everywhere! And those guys, they were his… I mean, her boyfriend and then they beat me and gave me that nasty stuff to drink and I can't stop throwing up now!"

Kendall smiled softly and held the drunk boy as he listened to him slur away, knowing he'd get the whole story tomorrow. "It's ok now, James. Come on, let's go home."

A few hours later James was showered and in his jammies, curled up in bed. Kendall had been making him drink water and take Tylenol to sober him up. Kendall sat on the bed and rubbed James' shoulder. "How you feeling, buddy?"

"Like a truck hit me," James complained, rubbing his head. "And m'tired."

"You need to sleep. You won't feel better in the morning though, just warning you. But on the upside, you might not remember anything."

James shook his head at the little joke, not finding it funny. "I'm sorry, Kendall."

Kendall sighed. "You don't need to be sorry, dude. You just didn't know. I'm really sorry you had to go through that."

"You can say you told me so, you know."

"I'm not going to say that. Those guys made you sick and they hurt you, badly. I never wanted that to happen. I was trying to protect you from it."

"I feel like the biggest douche on the planet."

Kendall laughed. "Pretty sure those guys were bigger douches than you. Just next time, listen to me."

"No problem. Thanks for saving me, bro. Hey, how did you know I needed you?"

Kendall shrugged. "Brotherly instinct?"

James smiled and leaned up, wrapping his arms around Kendall's neck. "Thanks buddy. I don't know where I'd be without you."

"You'd be drunk on the floor puking your guts out," Kendall answered. "Get some sleep, ok?"

"K. I love you man."

Kendall chuckled. "Love you too, man."

**A/N That was very… Different. Like? Please review? Ps, I'm extremely opposed to underaged drinking, and drugs sicken me. Don't do them! No party is cool enough for them to be ok!**


	11. moonstone, asdfghjklblah, armed wmycomp

**A/N Shouting out to asdfghjklblaah, armed with my computer, and moon stone1987 who wanted to see Carlos get hurt in a motorized scooter accident and Kendall turn all mother bear. Thanks guys! Prepare to see some extreme Kenlos fluff!**

After playing a handful of concerts over the past couple weeks, the boys all returned home with big, fat paychecks in their hands while they chattered endlessly about how they were going to spend it.

"I'm going to buy the biggest snowboard I can find," Kendall finally decided on, staring at the paycheck with a little drool falling out of his mouth.

"Ah, good one," Logan said. "I'm putting mine in the bank so I can get interest on it!" He said this with such excitement that James, Kendall and Carlos stared at him blankly. He just shrugged. "What? Medical school, remember?"

James shook his head. "I'm buying myself a modeling agent! Hopefully a hot one!"

Logan rolled his eyes. "James, you are so shallow. What about you, Carlos?" The boys all turned to the Latino, realizing he wasn't gabbing like he usually does.

"I dunno yet," Carlos said simply, even though he really did know what he was going to buy. In fact, he had already ordered it and it would arrive tomorrow because he purchased overnight delivery. Carlos didn't know how to wait for anything. But he knew his friends would kill him with a hockey stick if they found out and it was all he could do not to blurt it out. He was never any good at keeping secrets.

Carlos realized his friends were staring at him suspiciously and his heart started pounding. What if they already knew? They would take his brand new present and then _beat _him with it and then lock him in-

"Goodnight!" He suddenly yelled while running into his room before his friends could catch him.

"What was that about?" Logan asked, his face screwed up in confusion.

"I have no idea," Kendall said, wrinkling his nose. "Maybe he's just tired? I know I am. I'm hitting the sheets. Night, guys!" He left for his roomwith Logan right behind him, and James retired to the room he shared with Carlos, who already fell asleep.

A couple hours later, Kendall emerged quietly from his bedroom and crept into James and Carlos' room to check up on him. The smaller boy was sound asleep, curled up in a pile of blankets. His little bunny nose twitched happily in his sleep and the kid was literally smiling. Any worry that something was wrong with his little friend vanished instantly. But he knew Carlos extremely well, so he knew that whether it was good or bad, he was hiding something from them. Kendall smiled to himself. He would find out tomorrow.

-Page break-

Kendall was sure to wake up bright and early to have a meeting with Logan and James before Carlos woke up. The trio was seated at the breakfast bar in the kitchen eating their marshmallow cereal.

"We're putting Carlitos through the ringer today. He's hiding something from us," Kendall announced.

"What do you think it is? He isn't sick, is he?" Logan asked.

"Nope, it's something good. I think," Kendall said. "He was all happy and stuff in his sleep last night."

"Oh! Maybe he has a girlfriend!" James suggested. The boys seemed to consider this for a moment, then burst into fits of laughter.

"What's so funny?" A cheery voice asked from behind them. James turned around to see a sleepy looking Carlos dressed in his teddy bear jammies and a matching night cap.

"Nothin'," James said casually. "So, what's up Carlos? Anything you might want to share with us?"

Carlos looked at his friends like a deer caught in headlights and grabbed the box of cereal, stuffing handful after handful of the marshmallow mix into his mouth until his cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk before he blabbed his big secret.

"Uhh, ok," Kendall said, clearly weirded out.

Suddenly the doorbell rang and Logan got up to answer it. "I'll get it!" He called, walking to the front door.

"Hello, delivery for Carlos Garcia," a mailman said.

"That's me!" Carlos said with a full mouth. He struggled to swallow his cereal, than skipped to the door.

"You're package is outside by the swimming pool. The hotel manager wouldn't allow it inside," The mailman said. "Sign this and let me run your credit card."

Carlos did what he was asked and bid farewell to the guy who delivered his precious new belonging. He turned around excitedly to be met with the questioning glares of his friends. Crap, he didn't think this all the way through.

"Dude, what did you buy?" James asked.

"A crocodile? Please don't say crocodile," Logan said.

"I wanna see!" Kendall said, running to the window that overlooked the swimming pool.

"No!" Carlos yelled, wrapping his arms around Kendall's waist and pulling him back.

"Ooh, Carlos has a secret!" James taunted, prying him off of Kendall so the blonde could look at what Carlos purchased.

"Whoa, no way!" Kendall exclaimed when he saw the shiny red scooter sitting next to the pool.

"What? Let me see!" Logan said. He peered out the window and gasped in anger. "Carlos! You bought a motorcycle?"

"Relax, it's a scooter," Carlos corrected. "And it's all mine… Bye!" Carlos ran down to the pool with his friend's right on his tail.

"This is yours, I presume?" Mr. Bitters asked, jingling the keys.

"Yep!" Carlos said, swiping the keys away.

"Get it off of my property!" Mr. Bitters said before disappearing into his office.

"Carlos, I disapprove of this. Do you know how dangerous this is?" Logan asked, just beside himself with worry. Carlos was never allowed behind the wheel of _anything_, despite the fact that he was 18 and old enough to do what he wanted.

"Yep!" Carlos said, sitting on the scooter. It was seriously cool and it made him feel all grown up. It looked just like a motorcycle. "How do I look?"

"Well honestly, in your jammies and cap, a little goofy," James said. Carlos giggled and removed his cap to replace it with his trusty helmet that, as usual, popped up out of nowhere.

"Adios, amigos!" Carlos said, turning the ignition.

"Wait! You have no idea how to ride that!" Logan said.

"Dude, Logan's right," Kendall said. "How about I drive it to a back road and you guys take the BTRMobile. And Carlos, put on some clothes."

20 minutes later, Carlos was back on his bike and Kendall was teaching him how to operate the vehicle.

"So, do you think you kinda get the idea?" Kendall asked the overly-excited Latino and he nodded eagerly, practically knocking Kendall off the bike so he could sit on it.

"Just go slow, _please,"_ Logan said.

"Quit worrying guys. Kendall, quit it," Carlos whined, swatting Kendall's hand away when the leader attempted to make sure his helmet fit nice and snug. It looked a little loose to him.

"Alright, alright," Kendall said.

"I wanna do a wheelie!" Carlos exclaimed, revving the engine.

"No!" His 3 friends shouted, but Carlos took off down the empty road way too fast for any of their likings.

"He won't actually attempt a wheelie, will he?" James asked.

"He's Carlos, of course he will," Kendall said. He was getting quite sick of the smaller boy's stupid stunts and freaking out over them all the time. He spent more time worrying about him than he did anyone else.

"He's going too fast," Logan said as Carlos got further and further away from them.

"Carlitos, come back!" James shouted, but the Latino was too far away too hear him.

Surprisingly, Carlos did not do a wheelie. He did, however, start to lose control of the vehicle. It started wiggling like a worm and no matter how hard Carlos tried to steer it, it still smashed head on into a tree, throwing Carlos a good 15 feet, his body flying through the air like he was a little ragdoll.

"Carlos!" The boys screamed, starting to panic and run to their friend, who they knew had to be seriously hurt after a crash like that.

"Get in the car!" Kendall said, keeping his head together. He didn't even check to make sure everyone was in the vehicle and the doors were closed before he sped off towards the wreck.

"Oh, please be ok," Logan murmured, placing a hand to his forehead. James bounced his knees nervously and Kendall gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white. The ride felt like a lifetime even though it was less than a minute.

When Kendall pulled up to the crunched piece of metal that was Carlos' scooter, they piled out of the car and tried to locate Carlos, who they hoped desperately wasn't as bad off as the scooter.

"He's over here, guys!" Logan yelled, spotting a small figure lying face down in a creek. He ran towards his hurt friend and realized that he was unconscious, face down, in _water. _It was only a few inches deep, but that was enough to drown somebody. "Oh my God! Carlos!" Logan cried. Even though he knew better than to move an accident victim, he had no choice but to flip him carefully onto his back.

"Carlos! Is he ok?" James asked as he and Kendall ran over and knelt next to Logan.

"He's drowned," Logan said in a shaky voice, feeling Carlos' extremely faint pulse. He leaned over his mouth and felt no air coming out. "He's not breathing, guys!"

Kendall's eyes widened in horror and he felt like he was paralyzed. He could do nothing but watch Logan perform CPR on the small, lifeless body for what felt like ages.

"Come on Carlos!" Logan squeaked out, tears running down his cheeks as he compressed his friend's chest. Just as he said that, a tiny cough could be heard, and suddenly Carlos' entire body was shuddering as he coughed up what seemed like buckets of icky water.

"Guys?" Carlos choked out, tears leaking from his scared eyes at the uncomfortable feeling. He had no idea what was going on. James helped him sit up and pounded on his back until all the water he had swallowed was out of his system.

"It's ok, you're ok, we gotcha," James cooed. Carlos collapsed against his chest, seeking comfort.

"Do you know what happened?" Logan asked, going into doctor mode to make sure he didn't have a concussion. Carlos shook his head, confused. He had no clue how he ended up in this creek, but he was cold now. Kendall seemed to notice Carlos shiver and helped James move him to a grassy area.

"Does anything hurt" Logan asked, checking the boy's body for injuries. It didn't feel like anything was broken, luckily.

"My head," Carlos complained, removing his helmet because for once in his life it was causing more pain than it was comfort. He heard his friends gasp when he took it off, revealing a huge purple bruise above his left eyebrow, and that scared him a little bit, even though he couldn't think straight because his head was throbbing and swimming in a sickening way.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" Logan asked, holding up 3. Carlos looked at him with glazed eyes and squinted.

"Where?" Was the Latino's only response, and Logan made up his mind quick.

"We're taking him to the hospital," He announced. Kendall and James carried Carlos to the car and Logan drove them to the ER, where Carlos was taken away immediately when the nurses saw the nasty bruise on Carlos' head and noticed how listless he was. Logan told the nurse exactly what happened and then they waited anxiously for 30 minutes before a doctor entered the waiting room and called "Carlos Garcia?"

"Over here!" Logan said, scrambling to his feet. His friends followed suit.

"Is he alright?" James asked.

"What's wrong with him?" Kendall chimed in. The doctor smiled and held up his hand.

"He's fine, boys. Just very shaken up and scared. He has a pretty bad concussion but we did a quick CT scan and he's in no danger, he just needs a few days of rest. The bruise makes it looks worse than it really is. He also has a few bruised ribs so he'll be very sore for a little bit. I prescribed him some pain pills and some antibiotics just to insure he doesn't contract an infection from swallowing so much water. He's a very lucky boy. It could have been much worse considering the speed he was going. And who here is Logan?"

"I am," Logan said shyly.

"Well you saved your friends life, Logan. You should be very proud of yourself."

Logan looked at his feet, blushing heavily, but at the same time his gut twisted at the thought that Carlos could have died. "Can we go see him now?"

"Sure, he's resting now but he's been asking for you guys constantly. I'll take you to his room." The doctor led them to Carlos' room, where said boy was doing anything but resting. He was crying, and if that wasn't heartbreaking enough, he was asking the nurse who was taking his blood pressure where his friends were.

"Buddy, hey, we're right here," James said, making a beeline to where Carlos laid, looking like a tiny little scared boy instead of a grown teenager. His eyes lit up when he saw his friends and stretched out his arms towards them, silently asking for hugs. James happily gave into his request, holding him gently as not to hurt him while stroking his soft, spikey hair.

"You ok, Carlitos?" Kendall asked softly, taking his turn to gather his little brother into his arms. Carlos coughed violently, his shoulders shaking against the blonde's chest. Kendall looked at the nurse in worry, wondering why Carlos had such a bad cough.

"Don't worry, he's ok," The nurse assured him. "He'll have a cough for a few days after nearly drowning."

"Ok, thanks nurse," Logan said before leaning forward to hug Carlos. "You really scared us, buddy."

"Yeah, as soon as you feel better I'm kicking your butt," Kendall warned. Now that he knew Carlos was ok, he was ready to make sure Carlos never pulled a stunt like that again.

Carlos looked down guiltily. He knew he had done something stupid, but he couldn't help but want to know how his poor scooter was. "Is my scooter wrecked, guys?"

"Yes, but even if it wasn't you would never ride it again," Logan said sternly, making Carlos shrink down into his blankets. "Now you need to get some rest. Just try to relax and we'll be right here for you when you wake up, ok?"

"K, just don't leave," Carlos said sleepily.

"We're not going to leave you," Kendall said, rubbing the Latinos back gently until he fell asleep. The boys stayed with him all day and evening. They took turns going to the cafeteria and bringing back food for each other because they refused to leave him alone for even a second.

Carlos was clearly affected by the whole ordeal. However stupid his stunts were all the time, he rarely got hurt besides a broken wrist here or some cuts and scrapes there. He had never gotten so close to death before, so naturally, he was fitful all day, moaning and whimpering in his sleep during obvious nightmares. It broke his friend's hearts but they couldn't do much beside stroke his hair, rub his back, and whisper over and over again that he was alright.

By the time 8 pm rolled around, the boys were exhausted and staring blankly at a football game on the tiny television in the room. Carlos' doctor came in and checked on his patient before turning to the boys.

"Sorry boys but visiting hours are over," he said. "You can come back tomorrow morning."

Kendall blinked. "Wait, what? We have to leave?"

"Sorry young man. We only let parents stay with their children over night. Carlos is fine. He needs a good night sleep though."

"No, he needs us," Kendall said softly, ready to argue the man to the bone about this. "There's no way I'm leaving."

"It's hospital rules, I'm sorry but you need to leave for the night."

Kendall crossed his arms defiantly and scowled. No way was he budging from this chair. Logan and James watched him nervously because they knew their leader and how stubborn he could get. "I promised Carlos I wouldn't leave and I keep my promises."

The doctor actually turned to Logan and James, hoping for a little help. "Boys, you know this is hospital protocol. You can't stay here."

"We know," James said. "But good luck telling him that. And Carlos really needs us right now, he gets scared easily."

"Your friend is 18 year old, I'm sure he can handle a night in the hospital."

"You don't understand, he'll freak," Kendall said, forcing himself to keep his voice down so he wouldn't wake up Carlos. Logan and James watched the 2 argue for 10 minutes straight and neither showed any chance of backing down.

"Kendall," James said, annoyed. "We have to go. Let's leave, now."

Kendall looked at James in shock. He had fully expected him to be on his side. How could they just leave Carlos like this? James would never do that! "James, you can't be-"

"Sorry!" James told the doctor before grabbing Kendall and dragging him out of the hospital. Kendall was tall but skinny, and James was taller and tripled Kendall in muscle so Kendall really had no choice but to leave with James. Plus, the blonde really didn't want to cause a scene in the hospital and get kicked out for good.

"James! What was that about?" Kendall whined, ready to march right back into the hospital.

"Relax, we have a plan," James said. "While you were busy arguing, Logan went over to the window and measured the distance from the ground to the room inside his little genius brain and discovered that all we have to do is get a ladder and we can sneak inside the room."

"What?" Kendall asked, surprised and impressed.

"I already unlocked the window and everything," Logan said. "Carlos' room is on the 2nd floor and around the back of the hospital so no one will see us, especially since it's nighttime."

"Oh," Kendall said. Usually he made the genius plans but he was proud of Logan and James.

"Now how do we get a ladder?" James asked.

"And something to haul it in," Logan said, worrying that they didn't plan well enough. Kendall came up with the answer immediately.

"Gustavo is getting work done at the studio! He has a ladder and a pickup truck! Now all we have to do is jack it."

"Or ask nicely to borrow it," Logan said.

"But that's not fun enough!" Kendall said. Logan groaned.

About an hour later, the boys all stood at the back of the hospital with their stolen pick-up truck (well not actually stolen because Kelly gave them the keys) and ladder. They were dressed entirely in black with their black football paint smeared across their cheeks. It reminded them of the time Griffin had that ridiculous reality show ordered for them and the boys had to sabotage it.

"Well… Who goes up first?" Kendall asked. "Not it!"

"Not it!" James asked.

"What? Me?" Logan asked when his taller friends looked at him expectantly.

"Oh just get on with it," Kendall said, lifting Logan up and placing him on the 3rd rung of the ladder. "And are you sure this is the right room?"

"Pretty sure," Logan said, starting his climb up the tall ladder. What he saw when he peered through the window would scar him for life: A 40 year old fat man receiving a sponge bath from a nurse. Logan suppressed the urge to scream and instead squeaked before climbing back down quickly. "Next window, next window!"

"Dude, what did you see?" James asked, noticing Logan's petrified eyes and red face.

"Nothing!" Logan said, moving the ladder over one.

"Oh, I'll go this time," Kendall said, realizing he was anxious to see Carlos. He climbed up and peered into the window. There was Carlos, curled up on his side, caramel skin glowing in the moonlight. Even from far away, he could see crystal tears shining on his cheeks and coughs wracking his body. He quickly opened the window and ran to Carlos' side so he could pat his back.

"Kendall?" Carlos asked. He had never been happier to see his friend, but his voice was sad. "You left me."

"I know, they kicked me out," Kendall said. "But me and the guys jacked Gustavo's ladder and we snuck up here."

Carlos grinned when he saw James and Logan pop through the window, waving cheerfully at him. When he had woken up about 30 minutes ago from a painful coughing fit and a throbbing pain in his head only to find he was alone, he had felt horribly lonely and afraid. He needed his friends right now, more than they knew.

"And we aren't leaving you again," James said.

"Now go back to sleep," Logan said, fluffing Carlos' hair. Carlos smiled and snuggled into his blanket contently.

A couple hours later, when the night shift nurse went to check on Carlos, she was startled to find 3 teenagers huddled around Carlos almost in a protective circle, sound asleep. She smiled to herself as she decided to let the boys stay and just wake them up so they could leave before Carlos' doctor arrived in the morning.

**A/N Was that a weird place to end? There's not much else I could have done haha. Did you guys like it? Drop me a review if you can, pleasie! Thanks for reading! Next up is something I'm super excited for that I haven't done before: The boys have to deal with separation anxiety when they are separated for the first time. I adore that request and can't wait to get started on it! **


	12. chasing the dream

**A/N Shouting out to chasing the dream 16, who requested I write about the boys being separated for the first time and their emotions until they are reunited. I love this request so thanks! And thanks for reading and all the reviews! I am ALWAYS taking requests!**

**Warning: Angsty angst! Teehee.**

"Come on guys, we can _do _this," Kendall said in his "pep talk" voice to his best friends, who stood clutching their backpacks while giving their leader the biggest, shiniest puppy dog eyes he had ever seen from them. It's like they were begging him to make them come with him, but he couldn't do anything about their current situation.

Gustavo decided to give the boys a whole 2 week Christmas vacation so they could go home and spend time with their families. At first, the teenagers were absolutely elated as visions of ice skating on the pond, snowball fights, movie marathons, and eating 'til they were sick off of Mrs. Knights homemade holiday goodies, all while they were in their Christmas jammies of course, danced in their brains.

But their families had different plans this year. Carlos' family were going to Colorado to visit his Grandmother, James' mother was taking him to Sweden mostly just so she wouldn't have to spend time with her ex-husband over the holidays, Mrs. Knight decided to take her children to Hawaii because no way was she going back to freezing cold Minnesota ever again, and Logan, well, he was the only one staying home in Minnesota.

The boys had begged and begged to let them stay in Minnesota while their families went off around the world but they refused to spend Christmas away from their kids after being away for so long, so that's why the 4 boys were gathered in a tight, depressed circle in the middle of LAX while their parents, who arrived earlier to pick up their kids, watched on impatiently so they could get on with their separate ways.

"Come on guys, stop pouting," Kendall said when his friends pushed their lower lips out, realizing that they weren't going to get their ways this time.

"Yeah, it won't be so bad I guess," James finally said, trying to be positive even though he really didn't want to be in a foreign country with his mother for 2 weeks during the most bestest, wonderful time of the year when he could be making snowmen in his gingerbread man footie pajamas. Brooke Diamond never let him wear his footies. James resumed pouting again after that thought. "We can facetalk every night."

"We'll all be in different time zones," Logan pointed out.

"And mom is confiscating all of my electronics for this trip," Kendall said. Carlos nodded. Mrs. Knight and Mrs. Garcia all decided taking away computers and cell phones so their kids would actually spend time with them would be a good idea, but it just made them more depressed.

"We'll, I guess this is goodbye," James said a bit too dramatically, which made Carlos start to blubber.

"I'll miss you guys so much!" Carlos cried, scrunching up his face and flinging his little body into his friend's arms. They all hugged and blubbered and snotted over each other, causing people to stare and their parents to actually begin to be embarrassed.

"Carlos, we're going to miss our flight honey," Mrs. Garcia said in her sweet, motherly voice. Carlos heaved a sigh and let his friends muss his hair and James to strap on his helmet before leaving with his mother. He turned around and waved pitifully one last time before disappearing into the huge airport.

"We've lost Carlos," James said sadly. Logan nudged him in the ribs.

"Dude, he's not dead, we're just going to be separated for 2 weeks."

"Logan baby, we gotta go!" Mrs. Mitchell called, approaching her son. Logan looked at her like she was the plague and clung onto Kendall's arm. "Please don't make me go!" He pleaded.

"No, Logan, go on, it's ok," Kendall encouraged. He turned to James when he couldn't pry Logan off of his arm. "James, help."

"Logan, buddy, you'll be fine!" James said, pulling the pale boy away from Kendall and to his mother. "See? You're fine!"

Mrs. Mitchell rolled her eyes and grabbed Logan's hand, pulling her son away. James turned to Kendall and puffed out his cheeks.

"Well, I guess this is it," the brunette said.

"Yep. I'll miss you buddy," Kendall said. They gave one last hug before walking form each other and to their waiting families.

It was now Christmas Eve, day 7 (yes they were counting) and while pretty much everyone else around them were having a great time, they couldn't help but feel like something was missing.

Carlos lay flat on his back in the fluffy white snow covering his Grandmothers huge yard. His cheeks were red and nipped with cold, his nose was runny, and the wet diamond flakes were starting to seep through his snowsuit and onto his goose-bump covered skin. The sky was a dark, swirly grey and he was slowly becoming buried with snow but he didn't care. This _stunk. _He had spent all day being jumped on by his little cousins and over-shadowed by his older ones. He was so used to his family comparing him to other members and sometimes even forgetting he existed, but he always had his friends with him to make him feel worth something, except this time. His family was so huge, he was pretty sure no one even noticed that he had left the over-crowded house an hour ago and was slowly disappearing underneath the heavy snow, until his older brother came outside, pulled Carlos out of the snow, and shamelessly spanked him before hauling him inside while scolding him for being an idiot. Carlos pouted harder, missing his friends now more than ever. At least they never spanked him.

James sat miserably on his hotel bed, surrounded by balled up wrapping paper and gifts his mother had bought him. He still had a huge pile to open, but he was downright lonely. He had caught a cold a couple days ago so he couldn't join his mother to see some stupid ballet of some sort. Mrs. Diamond had offered to stay at the hotel room with him but he insisted she go, knowing that she had been looking forward to the show for days, so she made it up to him by giving him half of his gifts a day early. Every year, she would buy dozens upon dozens of gifts for him, as if that would make up for time she didn't spend with him. She was always especially busy during the holidays, and while it hurt him inside to think that his mom didn't even want to spend time with him for Christmas, he always had Carlos, Kendall and Logan to brighten his spirits. James didn't want to be lavished with gifts or anything like that, he just wanted to spend real time with his mother doing real things. Like baking cookies or watching movies, not acting like the "Perfect Son" she told all her friends and co-workers about. But while he would rather be in a hotel room then at a boring ballet, he could not help feeling like there was a hole in his heart. It wasn't even Christmas here in Sweden. It was just like any other day, when he knew it should be Christmas Eve. He wanted his friends with him. James kicked his presents off the bed, curled up into a ball, and cried into his pillow.

Logan sat at the edge of the pond he spent every winter ice skating on and every summer swimming at with his friends when he was little. It was late Christmas Eve and he could hear carolers in the distance singing "O Holy Night" and see glittering red and green lights off of the houses surrounding him. Snow fell very slowly and if he looked closely enough, he could see vivid memories of his friends and him skating on the pond like they had done over past Christmas'. He almost smiled, but it quickly vanished when pain shot through his arm where his dad had grabbed him and twisted harshly. Tears stung his vision as he cradled his arm to his chest. His mom had been called into work even though she asked for the day off nearly a month ago. She kissed Logan's head, promised she would be home soon, and left Logan alone with her husband who she believed was harmless. But Mr. Mitchell was anything but harmless. He used to be, until he started drinking about 5 years ago. It didn't happen often, but when he would get drunk he would sometimes use physical force on his only son. Logan refused to break his mom's heart and tell her, but he always had Kendall there to comfort him through it. This was the first time he had ever been hurt by his dad that Kendall wasn't there with him. Logan was kicked out of his house on Christmas Eve and he had nowhere to go but the pond, where he shivered and cried weakly, Kendall's name escaping his lips a few times. Not that it mattered because nobody was around to hear him.

Kendall was surrounded by people, laughter and music. He was attending a huge Christmas Eve Hawaiian Luau with Katie and his mom. He watched as the woman he held so dear in his life danced to a Christmas song played by 2 guys with ukuleles. They were dressed in long grass skirts and looked gorgeous as they had the time of their lives, dancing without a care in the world. But Kendall could not help but stare at the huge bonfire with tears glistening in his eyes. The holidays were always a hard time for him, ever since his dad died. This was Christmas number 7 without him and his grief wore heavy on his heart. It did every year, but any other year he was with his best friends and they always knew just how to distract him from the pain and comfort him when needed. They filled the empty void he felt inside of him every Christmas but now that they weren't here, the painful void was back full force, so much so that it almost hurt to breathe. He didn't want to ruin his family's good time so he just sat in a lawn chair, listening to music and watching his mom and sister while fighting back the tears that were getting harder and harder to keep in.

Neither of the boys had ever realized how much they truly needed each other. It was almost as if they had taken each other's presence for granted, expecting them to all be by their sides no matter where life took them. By day 14, which was New Year's Eve, the boys were an antsy, anxious wreck as they rode on their separate airplanes all heading to one location, LAX. While every plane had a slightly different landing time, they had vowed to be reunited before midnight struck. 2 weeks ago, before the boys left, they had set the meeting place as downstairs in the main lobby, under the gigantic Christmas tree that the airport set up every year.

It was 11:56 and Carlos ran through the giant airport, jumping up and down to try and see 3 familiar heads in a swarm of strangers. It didn't help that most of the adult population was much taller than him and he could hardly see a thing. But he noticed a tall brunette standing above him on the 2nd floor and he flailed his arms wildly, screaming for his attention.

Kendall was the first to arrive at the Christmas tree and he was starting to get worried, as the clock was ticking away and it was only minutes away from midnight. Airport staff was getting all the travelers pumped for the big moment and passed out little plastic flutes filled with sparkling grape juice. Excitement was thick in the air but Kendall bounced on his heels nervously until he could see a little helmeted head jumping up and down through the crowd and the hugest grin exploded on his face.

Logan had forgotten all about the Christmas he had endured. His bruises were fading and it was about to be a new year, another year far away from his father. But even more important was that he would finally, after 2 agonizingly long weeks, see his brothers again. He saw a tall blonde boy in a blue sweater underneath the giant Christmas tree and it finally felt like Christmas to him as he burst into a run to greet his best friend and protector.

Even in the densely populated airport, James still felt loneliness eating away at his insides. He had gotten lost and it was now 2 minutes to midnight. His friends were yet to be found and he was sure he would burst into tears in front of everyone if he couldn't locate his best friends before midnight. No way would he spend New Year's Eve alone like he spent "Christmas" by himself. But suddenly, over the loud chattering of people and the blaring Christmas music he could hear a voice calling up to him and a small body flailing his arms around, trying to get his attention. It was Carlos, on the floor below him. James ran and looked down to see the Christmas tree and Kendall underneath it, and Logan running in the distance. Happiness crept through his veins and James took the escalator 3 steps at a time to greet his friends.

The entire airport started to shout down the seconds to midnight and the boys were running faster than ever. At the exact moment that the airport erupted into cheers and honks of party horns, the boys bowled each other over and onto the ground in a dog-pile, relieved to be in the arms of their best friends again.

"Happy New Year!" Logan shouted, and he giggled when Kendall tickled him.

"I missed you guys!" Carlos cried. James ruffled the younger boy's hair.

"We missed you too, Carlos!"

Kendall's cheeks hurt he was grinning so hard at the sight of his friends. They were still in the ground, strands of colored confetti and tinsel falling in their hair and getting stuck. He gathered the boys in his arms and squeezed hard before planting a kiss on each of his little brother's foreheads.

They were happy again. They were reunited.

**A/N Squirtin' on the cheese-whiz again. That was completely different then I thought it would be! I'm just extremely desperate for Christmastime. I hope you still liked it, chasing the dream! I hope all of you liked it! Please review? Thanks guys!**


	13. boots n opals

**A/N Shouting out to my girl, boots n opals! She's legit. She requested that Carlos get a cotton candy maker for his 14****th**** bday and the boys go sugar-nuts.**

Kendall hopped up and down in the living room of one of his best friends, Carlos Garcia. The youngest of the group of 4 finally turned 14 today and he decided to buy him the most epic of all birthday presents: The cotton candy maker. He was so excited for Carlos to see his gift. It was a huge one, the kind that you see at fairs. Kendall spent all his hard earned lawn mowing money on the contraption. It was nearly as tall as little Carlos, who barely broke 5 feet this month while everyone else in his grade was at least 5 and a half feet already.

"Come on Carlos, open it!" Kendall prodded. The giant box was covered sloppily in balloon wrapping paper and about 15 big colorful bows. Kendall liked to go all out on these things.

"Yeah, we wanna see what it is!" James said, starting to get antsy. Kendall kept the gift a secret from everybody. Carlos just stared at the present in front of him with huge eyes, and in one big leap and a scurry of arm movement, the cotton candy maker was revealed and Carlos gasped in absolute awe, his eyes the size of watermelons. Well, if watermelons were brown, but either way Kendall thought they got really big and excited. He knew right away that Carlos loved his gift.

"Whoa, Kendall!" Carlos cried. "Oh, this is just amazing, and so… Big! I love it, thanks!" The younger boy hugged Kendall tightly.

"You really like it?" Kendall asked just to make sure. Carlos nodded eagerly.

"It's awesome! But what is it?"

Kendall rolled his eyes. "It's a cotton candy maker, Carlos! You pour all this sugar and food coloring in it and it spins really fast and it makes cotton candy."

"No way," Carlos said, taking in an excited breath of air.

"Dude, where did you even get this thing?" Logan said, afraid to admit that this was probably the coolest present ever because all of their parents would probably be pissed.

"A pawn shop!" Kendall said proudly. Logan gave him a look.

"A _pawn_ shop?" Logan asked ridiculously. "Really, Kendall?"

"Yep!" Kendall said, not really seeing anything wrong with a 14 year old going to a pawn shop.

"Well, who cares if this used to belong to a drug addict? I don't care!" James said. "Can we use it now?"

"Ooh, can we please?" Carlos asked, folding his hands up in a little ball underneath his chin.

"Duh, that's why I bought it!" Kendall said, already pouring the bag of cotton candy mix he bought from a store into the contraption. "What color should we do first?"

Carlos examined the collection of odd food coloring Kendall had bought. There was bright red, orange, yellow, brown, green and black. Certainly not traditional cotton candy colors but he thought it would be more fun that way. "Let's do black!"

Kendall grinned and poured half a bottle of black into the mix and flipped the switch, setting it on high so that the cotton candy would come out extra fluffy for Carlos. Or at least that's what he thought would happen.

Suddenly, the machine was whirring like crazy and black, sticky wisps of sugar started flying everywhere. Carlos giggled and James tried to catch some.

"Whoa! Turn it off!" Logan cried, reaching for the switch to turn it down. The machine stopped whirring and slowed down quite a bit. James burst out laughing.

"Look at my 'stache!" The tall brunette said, sticking a piece of black cotton candy on his upper lip.

"I have a wig!" Carlos said, sticking a huge clump of stickiness on top of his head. Kendall and Logan laughed. This was fun. It would definitely be worth Mrs. Garcia's wrath later on when she finds the mess. Mrs. Garcia was too sweet to punish any of the kids severely, anyway.

About an hour later, the 4 boys had consumed about 5 pounds of sugar. Or at least that's it seemed like. It was an absolute mess inside of the small living room. Cotton candy in a rainbow of colors that the boys had mixed together literally hung off the ceiling. Carlos was currently inside of the cotton candy maker, spinning around and getting covered in the sticky treat while the machine whirred under his weight. Kendall and James were playing hockey with a green cotton candy hockey puck and Logan was sprawled face first in a pile of cotton candy, already passed out from his sugar high.

"Boys!" A loud and angry high pitched voice suddenly shouted from behind them. Carlos instantly recognized his mother's voice and tumbled out of the cotton candy maker and onto the floor, trying to act nonchalant even though he knew he was in big trouble. James shoved the "hockey puck" in his mouth and chuckled nervously, and Logan snored loudly.

"Hi, mommy!" Carlos said sweetly. "It's my birthday!"

Mrs. Garcia glared at her child. She loved the boy more than anything but she was sick of cleaning up his messes. He was inside of a cotton candy maker, for goodness sakes! "I know what day it is, sweetie, because how can I forget giving birth to the most mischievous, craziest nut on this planet? Really, Carlos? There's cotton candy everywhere! And no way is being cute going to pull you out of this one!"

"I made you a cotton candy bouquet!" Carlos said with a grin, presenting her what actually resembled an edible flower bouquet. "And did I mention it's my birthday?"

Mrs. Garcia caved. How could she be upset at that? "Ok, you're not in trouble. But you boys are cleaning this up! I'll be right back with cleaning supplies." The motherly figure left for 5 minutes to get some soap and buckets of water from the kitchen and when she came back, Kendall was passed out on top of Logan, James was asleep standing up against a candy covered wall, and Carlos was curled up inside of his gift, snoring and sucking his thumb. Mrs. Garcia rolled her eyes and started on cleaning up the mess, knowing they would be knocked out for hours.

**A/N There ya go, Bootsie! Sorry this was so pitifully short, but I wanted to be cute and mindless. So yeah, short and sweet no pun intended. Thanks for the reviews they make me feel so good, ya'll are wonderful! Hope you enjoyed this lil diddy! **

**Ps, I have no idea what a cotton candy maker does. So if you're like, what the heck is this girl talking about? Just remember that I wrote this in the middle of the night.**


	14. freaky cutie carlos

**A/N So I'm getting so many unique requests and I love them! You guys are awesome. Sorry I'm a sappy person, it just makes me so happy to know you guys actually enjoy my work. Ok, on with it. This is for freaky cutie Carlos! Shouting out to her, I love her Carlos whump! This will be rated T for scary sad themes.**

"Logie's gonna be mad, Logie's gonna be mad!" Carlos chanted through clenched teeth, stepping firmly on the gas pedal of the BTRMobile that Logan rarely allowed him access too. The small Latino had wanted a late night snack of corndogs but the fridge was empty of his most beloved treat. He begged Logan to go get him some, but Logan refused because he was too busy with some research paper, so he just threw Carlos the keys and warned him to be back in 30 minutes. After driving around for most of that time, he finally found a convenience store that was not only opened, but sold fresh hot-off-the rack corn dogs.

"Hmm, how _convenient,"_ Carlos thought to himself with a giggle, walking into the small store and buying a bundle of corndogs to enjoy on the ride home. It was supposed to just be an in-and-out ordeal. He didn't foresee the distraction he would face outside of the store: Rides. The small ones for kids that you stick a quarter in and they move back and forth lamely. Well, Carlos was a grown boy, but there was no one around to laugh at him and he loved the colors and sounds, not to mention the back-and-forth motion soothed him.

Nearly an hour went by of Carlos feeding quarters into the machine and corndogs into his mouth when he realized it was after midnight. Grabbing his corndogs, he ran to the car and sped home.

3 things went wrong to turn what happened next into a disaster, a tragedy.

The first thing is, in his hurry to get home to Logan, Carlos had forgotten to put his seatbelt on.

Then it started to rain on his way home. Just a bit, though. It wasn't a down pour and it wasn't a drizzle. It was just enough to make him turn on his wipers and blur his vision.

And then the 3rd thing happened, the event that set the nightmare in motion. An oncoming car with a drunkard behind the wheel swerved into Carlos' lane. If it wasn't so dark or so rainy, Carlos would have noticed that the blinding lights were really in his lane and maybe he would have pulled over into a ditch before it was too late.

But tonight, fate had different plans for the youngest member of Big Time Rush. The lights got closer and that was when Carlos had mere seconds to react. It was not enough time. Panic shot through his heart, paralyzing him momentarily. He was expecting to hear a deafening sound of metal against metal, but he had jerked the wheel before he could collide with the car. Instead, his car careened off of the road and down a ditch. He slammed his foot heavily against the brake pedal, but it did no good.

The tree seemingly appeared out of nowhere, as if it was put there at that moment just to shatter the life of a young, innocent boy. The front end of the cherry red vehicle crushed in on itself against the tree. Without anything holding his helpless body in, Carlos was forced forward out of his seat on impact.

The one time he wasn't wearing his helmet. Shards of glass pierced his scalp and face as he flew head-first through the windshield. For a split second, Carlos was air-born. And then he landed heavily on the cold, wet ground, every body part was jarred and bones cracked beneath him.

Rain pounded down on Carlos, pain shot through his every nerve, and the young boy screamed. It was a miracle he was conscious. Why was he conscious? He was dazed, concussed. But he was awake and that was the worst part.

He could not move. He knew right away that ribs were cracked, his leg was broken, his shoulder was dislocated. He knew this right away. It hurt to breath, and he whimpered when he saw the sickening angle his leg was positioned at.

"H-help!" Carlos tried to cry, but his voice was nothing more than a raspy whisper. Salty tears mixed with rain water ran down his face and pooled around him. He saw the blood, and that scared him more than anything. He didn't know what was bleeding. His head, his face, his entire body?

He was soon surrounded by a muddy, bloody mess. He was so cold. His body began to tremble, which only worsened the unfathomable amount of pain he was in. His head swam and he started to fell sleep, but the jolts of pain kept him awake. Should he be thankful for that, he wondered? He knew if he did lose consciousness that could be the end of it. He had to stay awake, he had to stay alive.

Carlos sobbed. Throaty, heartbreaking, high-pitched sobs. Why was this happening to him? He was a good boy. He was the most innocent, purest of souls yet he was made to lie in torture, alone and freezing.

In a cruel twist of fate, a child who had just been eating corndogs on a mechanical _horsey_ was now lying in a ditch, slowly fading away, hypothermia taking over. He was dying, with every passing moment. His only means of help was still in the car, ringing every couple minutes. He knew it was Logan, probably going insane with worry. He was so close, yet so far away. There was no way he could move. It was frustrating. It sucked all hope from his body.

Carlos shut his eyes and screamed.

~~~~~~BTR~~~~~~~~~~~~~BTR~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~BTR~~~~~~~~~~~~~BTR~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Logan Mitchell had a quirk to him. Well, he had many quirks that most people thought were "cute" or "sweet" or "nerdy". But there was one that he took seriously that none of his friends really even knew about.

He could not go to sleep without knowing his best friends were home, sleeping soundly in their beds. Kendall had to be in his bed across from Logan's, snoring and muttering loudly in his dream-filled state. Carlos and James had to be in their respectful beds every night, Carlos flopping around under his blankets as if he was a dead fish like he did every night and James humming in his sleep, his perfect skin glowing in the moonlight. It was the same every night and it had to be that way or else Logan was a nervous wreck.

On the rare occasion that one of the boys were late on their curfews (even though they were all 18, the 4 boys had agreed that 12:00 am unless otherwise notified was a sensible time), Logan would be curled up on the couch, staring blankly at the television while gnawing his fingernails to the nub.

None of his friends had noticed this, because he never said anything about it. He hated being known as the over-paranoid one, the scaredy-cat. He just simply loved his friends, _a lot, _and he worried over them like crazy.

It was currently one am and the fidgety lump on Carlos' race-car bed was non-existent. Out of all the boys, Carlos was never late. Kendall would lose track of time with Jo once in a while, and James would get caught up with whatever adventures he went on, but Carlos usually preferred to be home by 10:30, snug in his footie pajamas and bothering Logan until bedtime with various things, such as needing help with his homework or someone to take a picture of him in front of the "house" he made out of poptarts.

This was weird. No, it was wrong. Carlos should have been home by now. Logan tried calling his cellphone but each time it would go to voicemail, and each message he left got lengthier and more anxious as time slowly ticked by.

When 2 am rolled around, Logan was officially panicking. There was no way that Carlos simply got distracted, like he was hoping. A dozen horrible scenarios ran through his mind of what could have happened. He tried to push these from his mind and think clearly.

He knew that there was only one convenience store open that wasn't too far from the Palmwoods, and he knew Carlos would have gone there. Logan quickly threw on his shoes and ran to 4J, knocking on the door desperately.

"Logan? Hey, what's wrong?"" Camille asked, opening the door after a couple minutes with a robe wrapped around her. She immediately caught sight of Logan's pale cheeks and terrified eyes and knew something wasn't right.

"Camille, I need to borrow your car. Carlos- he went to the store and he's not home yet. I'm worried out of mind."

"Yeah, sure, let me get you my keys," Camille said in a calm voice. "It's gonna be ok, Logan. Deep breaths." The brunette gave him her car keys and he took them gratefully.

"Uh-huh, thanks Cam," Logan said hurriedly. He gave her a tiny smile before leaving the Palmwoods, driving to the 24 hour store a few miles away. He didn't see their car anywhere and the store was empty save for one employee.

"Excuse me have you seen a boy come in here tonight? Latino, about 'yey' tall, he's a little thing. Bought corndogs?"

"Oh yeah, he left a couple hours ago," The employee informed him. "He sat outside on the horse ride for ages. Is there something… You know, wrong with him?"

Logan scowled, immediately realizing what the clerk was getting at. "There's nothing wrong with him. He's just a kid," Logan said crossly. "Did he say anything at all about where he was going afterwards?"

"He just said he had to get home to his brother or something like that," the guy said. "Sorry, dude."

A knife twisted in Logan's gut when he heard those words. Tears stung at his eyes. Where was Carlos?

Logan muttered a "thanks" before leaving the small store and hopping in his girlfriend's car. He drove slower this time, trying to figure out where Carlos could have gone.

And then he saw it. How he had missed it the first time, he wasn't sure. Maybe because he was so distracted, he just didn't see the black tires marks trailing off of the road and into the thin line of trees lining the ditch beside the street. He didn't see the gleam of cherry red finish in the moonlight and smoke coming from the front of it.

Logan slammed on his brakes and u-turned around, parking right in front of where the obvious accident took place. He yanked off his seatbelt and ran into the woods, rain whipping his face. He almost lost his footing in the mud a couple times and his heart was pounding. He slammed into his car, skidding on the wet grass, than peered inside the driver side window. It was _empty. _Logan let out a choked sob. What did this mean? Carlos was ok? He left the car and walked for help? Maybe he was at the apartment now, shaken up but safe and unhurt, waiting for Logan to arrive home.

A tiny, heart wrenching whine a few feet from him broke away all hopes of that happening. Logan saw with horror that the windshield on the driver's side was broken, a hole in it the size of a small teenager. Somebody was crying in the darkness ahead of him. Logan was too scared to look. He didn't want to know what he would find there.

He knew that somebody was Carlos. His little brother, the sweet, fun loving baby of the group that loved kittens and cried over paper-cuts was lying motionless and maybe-

"No," Logan said aloud, refusing to think such a thought. He wasn't dying, he couldn't be. "Oh Carlitos. Oh, baby," Logan sobbed, kneeling beside his broken body. Carlos was deathly pale and shivering violently, soaked to the bone with rain. Logan covered his body with his own leather jacket and quickly examined his tiny friend.

Carlos seemed like he was in a whole 'nother world now, a world filled with pain and agony. His eyes were glazed and stared at the sky, blinking every few seconds, which Logan took as a good sign. But Carlos didn't even seem aware that Logan was with him.

"Carlos, it's me, it's Logie," Logan said loudly, snapping his fingers in front of Carlos' eyes. The Latino was completely out of it. Logan pulled out his cellphone and called 911, explaining through tears and sobs what had happened and where they were.

"Ok baby, help is coming just hold on, please Carlitos. Hold on." Logan grabbed Carlos hand and pressed the cold skin to his cheek. "Oh Carlos, you're so freezing. I'll warm you up, ok?" Logan covered up any exposed skin on Carlos with his jacket, than stroked the small boy's drenched bangs from his face.

It was so hard to look at his face. His dark skin was covered by streaks of blood and Logan could see shards of glass imbedded in his cheeks. Gashes went down his neck and all the way to his chest, and Logan took a second to thank God that the massive amount of glass missed his jugular. He was still losing a lot of blood though, too much blood. He could tell by the color of his skin, and how cold he was. His body temperature was getting dangerously low.

Carlos' sharp, painful breaths started to get a bit rattled. It was the scariest sound Logan ever heard in his life. The brunette held Carlos' hand tightly, fearing the worst.

"Carlos, please, just a few more minutes, ok? Hang in there, 'Litos."

Carlos gasped for breath in short takes. Logan could feel his pulse weakening as he held his hand, squeezing it tightly. Finally, Carlos moved his head just the slightest, not even half an inch. With all his strength, he squeezed Logan's hand. He knew his brother was with him, he knew all along.

"L-L-"

"Ssh, ssh, I gotcha," Logan soothed, crying tears of fear mixed with the smallest ounce of happiness. "Don't talk, just rest. Help is coming baby bro.

Carlos let out a tiny cry. He was still in so much pain, but he had become numb long ago. So numb, it took him a while to realize that Logan was not just in his imagination, he really was with him. He knew he shouldn't talk, it hurt so much, but he had too.

"Logan… Am I d-dying?" Carlos choked out.

"No, buddy, don't say that," Logan said, secretly measuring his pulse again. Help needed to come, now.

Carlos coughed, followed by a scream of pain. His lungs felt like they were being punctured. It hurt so badly. He looked up into Logan's dark, petrified eyes. He was scaring his older friend. He hated when Logie was scared.

Tears rolled out of Logan's eyes and down his chin, landing on Carlos' cheek. Carlos lifted his hand with everything he had in him and rested it on Logan's cheek. Logan held Carlos' hand in his, stroking his knuckles. "Hold on baby bro. Listen, do you hear the sirens? They're coming, they're almost here."

Logan knew it would be a few minutes until they arrived, the sound was carried in the distance and it still sounded faint. The light in Carlos' eyes grew dimmer with each passing second. His breathing became more labored.

"I love you, Logie," Carlos said softly, and Logan shook his head, tears pouring as fast as the rain now.

"I love you to Carlos, but it's ok. I promise. Please stay here with me, 'Litos. Don't go yet."

Carlos looked at Logan with mind-numbing sorrow. It was almost apologetic. He couldn't hang on anymore. His formerly warm, chocolate brown eyes were empty. They faded so dark that it was almost like staring into oblivion, like there was nothing left in him anymore.

And then the breath came, a shuddering, rattling breath that chilled Logan to the bone. The weak pulse that was thudding under Logan's fingertips suddenly halted.

"Nooooo!" Logan screeched. He felt like he was no longer in his mind anymore. It was an out of body experience. He couldn't control his actions, he had no idea what was happening. He just needed his Carlos back with him. He heard agonized wails and sobs and it didn't even dawn on him that he was the one making these noises. He buried his face in Carlos' neck and pleaded.

"Please, God not Carlos. He's a baby! Don't take my brother!" Logan screamed, almost angrily. A despair he never felt before flooded his entire being, overwhelming him. He held Carlos' cold, lifeless body close to him as his entire world shattered.

Suddenly, hands were ripping him away from Carlos' body and he refused to budge. He fought them off, desperate to have Carlos' hand in his. He needed to touch him, feel him. He needed to know Carlos was still there. He couldn't be gone.

"Son, you need to step back so we can save your friend," A calm voice said in Logan's ear, and the distraught boy looked up to see Carlos' body surrounded by paramedics. He didn't comprehend that these people were here to help him, though.

"No! Get away from him! Don't touch him!" Logan cried, struggling to reach the paramedics. He was possessive of Carlos. No one was to take his precious friend away from him.

A swarm of voices could be heard yelling, and Logan couldn't take it all in. Everything was moving in slow motion, and why wasn't he aloud to see his brother?

One paramedic's 4 little words stood out to Logan though.

"We have a pulse!"

Logan's heart skipped a beat, wondering if it was true or a cruel joke. But suddenly, Carlos wore a mask as oxygen was pumped into him. He had a _pulse._ His heart was beating.

Carlos was alive.

**A/N Whew, ok, here's some tissues guys. *Hugs*. I'm sorry I did that to you. This is why I don't do death fics. Too intense. I had a heart attack. I seriously had to stop in the middle of this and eat some lucky charms cause... Whew. **

**Can I just take a second to say something? Don't drink and drive. That is all. It's such a huge issue to me, and something that has affected my life. Be responisble, don't be a killer. Some innoncent people aren't as lucky as Carlos.**

**I refuse to kill my Carlos. Hope you liked. Please review, I'd love to know how I did with this.. I was so scared to post this. Love you guys…**


	15. happy girl 57

**A/N Shout out to happy girl 57, she wanted to see some Lomille h/c! This takes place one month after BTCrush.**

A dozen scripts lay in front of her along with a whole list of possible auditions to attend. She has spent a month waiting for callbacks that never came. With every audition she went to, it was always a, "We'll call you, Mrs. Robert." And she would never hear from them again.

Camille heaved a sigh, staring blankly at all the scripts she busted her butt trying to memorize. The lines of the characters she sought after were all mashed in her mind. She couldn't even tell which character was which, and in which movie or show. It was to the point now that she auditioned for every character needed that fit her description.

Camille Roberts was desperate, but not just that. She was becoming heartbroken. All she was ever told was "No." Even her agent was giving up on her. The usually confident, raven-haired beauty was starting to crumble. Why couldn't she land a part? Why was she feeling so distracted lately?

Why couldn't she even keep a boyfriend?

She added that last thought bitterly. It kind of took her by surprise. Because it wasn't only the lack of jobs that was crushing her entire being, but it was the fact that the one steady influence in her life didn't even want her anymore. Sure she kissed his best friend, which is entirely out of line and she deserved to be punished for it, but Logan was her rock. He kept her grounded in her unrealistic, dramatic little world.

She missed her Logan. She missed the way he turned a delightful shade of pink and rubbed his neck awkwardly over the smallest things. His crooked smile melted all her worries every time she looked at him. When he held her in his lap, she felt safe, something she never felt before. He always knew just what to say. He was smart and shy and flustered and funny and Camille loved it. She loved _Logan,_ for everything he was, even though he was too modest to realize he was perfect to her.

Camille was so tired of pretending it didn't bother her. She wanted him to find someone better than her. But every time she sat by the pool and saw Logan playing water volleyball, shirtless with crystal droplets dripping off his toned muscles, her heart pounded painfully. He would be giggling or babbling about something nobody understood or scolding his friends for doing something outrageous. He was so alluring and sweet. No matter how many dates she went on with other guys, it hurt when Logan talked to a girl that wasn't her. Hanging out together was becoming awkward, because any time that his skin brushed hers or he gave her that damned crooked grin, her stomach would flutter nervously and her cheeks would flush scarlet, giving her secret away. Camille never blushed, nor did she stutter, yet she found herself doing that on numerous occasions when she was with him.

Camille finally stood up with a purpose, gathered those scripts that were only weighing her down, and stuffed them in the garbage. This was it. She needed to get this off her chest. No more chickening out. Without even checking her hair or her lip gloss, she marched out of her apartment and over to 2J, knocked on the door, and immediately turned away and ran towards the elevator before anyone could see her.

No, her purpose was not to play ding dong ditch on her friends. But the thought of spilling everything to the one person that had enough power over her to make her nervous made her stomach churn and her skin clammy. She could feel her skin burning as she pressed the "close doors" button frantically. Without paying attention, she hit a random button for a floor and began to bang her head against the elevator.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid Camille" The girl chanted, wishing more than anything she could just disappear into one of her many characters and not feel what she felt right now. That's why she wanted to be an actress in the first place. She simply couldn't handle the emotional turmoil that was life. She was a surprisingly sensitive soul, and things affected her deeply.

Suddenly, the elevator "dinged" and opened up to a small white hallway with a short, narrow staircase of about 5 steps. Curious, Camille walked out into the hall and up the steps and opened the door at the top. She was greeted by darkness, cold wind blasting her. She was on the roof. Camille smiled a bit, deciding to step outside. It was a chilly but refreshing night, and the view was amazing. She could see so many twinkling lights off of buildings and cars, and all the noises of the city seemed so far away even though they were right below her.

Camille walked to the edge of the roof and looked out, admiring the display in front of her. But for some reason, in a short amount of time the beautiful lights underneath the vast, velvet blackness made her heart feel even worse. She felt so alone in a huge world. She was a naïve, scared little girl in this big city. She needed Logan by her side again. She took care of him and he took care of her, the way it should be. She wasn't supposed to be alone, she never meant to stab Logan in the back and hurt him. But the young girl couldn't help but feel selfish, wanting his love back in her life again.

Camille sat down on the cold roof and curled her legs in against her chest, than buried her face in her knees. She refused to cry. She didn't want to be the typical drama queen everyone expected her to be. She suddenly hated her reputation. Nobody was surprised when word got out what she had done with James, and that hurt her more than anything. She wasn't some emotionless robot, why couldn't people realize that?

"Camille?" A hesitant, familiar voice asked. Camille froze. She could recognize that voice anywhere. It brought her so much comfort with its gentle lilt and smooth tones.

"Hi Logan," Camille said pitifully, not even bothering to look up.

"What are you doing up here? You know you can get in trouble, right?" Logan said, and there was unmistakable worry laced in his voice.

"You know me, I'm a rebel," Camille said almost spitefully. "How'd you know I was up here?"

"Someone rang the doorbell and when I answered, a saw a streak of brown curls run into the elevator," He said with a chuckle. "I followed you up here. Is that creepy?" Camille didn't answer him. He raised his eyebrows, confused.

"Why won't you look at me, Cam?" He softened his voice, all humor gone leaving only concern. Camille's body tensed when she felt his warmth sit beside her, a little too close. Camille tried to ignore this and stared at the cement between her knees.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Logan pressed, taking the hair covering her face between his thumb and forefinger and brushing it behind her shoulder. Camille flinched away. Logan retracted his hand, slightly hurt. She loved physical contact, but now she was acting so distant. He wondered briefly what he had done before worrying that maybe somebody hurt her. He felt his pulse pound with anger at this.

"Camille, are you alright? Did someone hurt you?"

"No, I'm fine," Camille said quickly, finally lifting her head but avoiding his scrutinizing gaze. She made to get up and leave, but warm fingers wrapped gently around her small wrist and pulled her down. The contact made her skin tingle and she pulled her arm away, heat radiating off her cheeks.

"Why are you so hot?" Logan asked worriedly, cupping her face in his hands and stroking his thumbs over her red cheeks. Camille forced tears back. Did he not realize the torture he was doing to her?

"I don't know, it's warm out?" Camille said stupidly. Logan gave her a look and released her face, realizing she was extremely uncomfortable.

"It's actually quite chilly out. But we're not leaving this roof until you tell me what is going on. You never keep anything from me, what happened?" Logan asked. After he finished his sentence, he pulled his hoodie off, causing his long sleeve under shirt to rise up to his chest while doing so, exposing perfect, pale abs. Camille blinked and turned away, feeling her heart pound against her chest. Next thing she knew, Logan was slipping his grey hoodie over her head and she was surrounded by his smell. It was sweet, like minty vanilla, and she could feel the body heat he left in the fuzzy lining of the sweatshirt as she worked her arms in.

"Logan-" She tried to protest, but Logan did what she liked to do to him and pressed a finger to her lips harshly, whispering "sshh" with a satisfied grin on his face.

"Take it, I don't want you to get sick and you already feel feverish." Once again, a warm and callused hand was touching her face, this time slipping under her bangs and resting against her forehead. Camille's stomach fluttered at his caring gesture. It hurt to know that he didn't feel the same way.

"You know, I've noticed you seemed to be getting frustrated with work lately," Logan said. "Tough landing parts?"

Camille nodded her head in embarrassment. Great, now she was a failure.

Camille's throat constricted when a heavy arm lay across her shoulders, bringing her close to him. She couldn't fight it anymore. She felt weak. If she was standing her knees would have given out. She succumbed to his comfort and let her head loll helplessly against his shoulder. Tears leaked out and stained Logan's collar. He just buried his nose in her soft locks and rocked her ever so lightly.

"How did you know?" Camille asked with a sniffle.

"I notice everything," Logan said somewhat suggestively, as if he knew. Camille's stomach drooped and she leapt to her feet.

"I gotta go," she blurted, turning to leave. Logan caught her by her waist and turned her back around. The action left them chest-to-chest. She could feel his hot, sweet breath against her nose, making her dizzy.

"W-wait," Logan said. Was he nervous? He backed up a little, noticing he was a bit too close.

"I'm sorry, I can't do this anymore," Camille admitted, tears flowing quickly now. She took in a shaky breath, almost hyperventilating. She never thought a guy could do this to her. But Logan wasn't just any guy.

"Do what?" Logan asked innocently. "Acting? Because Cam, you're great and a part will come along soon enough, they're crazy not to cast-"

Logan's words were caught off by Camille doing the crazy thing she feared she would do if Logan kept luring her in unintentionally. She smashed her mouth against his, all the pent up passion and emotion she held inside her bruising his tender lips. She didn't even care if she was scaring him or hurting him. She tortured him with her tongue and finished the kiss with more than just a nibble to his bottom lip.

She pulled away and Logan looked absolutely shocked, eyes blown wide with surprise and, Camille was quite happy to see, lust. His lips quivered from the pleasured assault and his skin blazed red.

"Please tell me you weren't acting just now," Logan said in a high-pitched, weak voice.

Camille laughed. He was just too adorable. "I'm not acting, Logan. I'm sorry. This doesn't have to mean anything if you don't want it to. I just want you to know, I'm not over you. I never was. When you told me you wanted to be just friends, it crushed my world. I miss you and I'm so sorry I hurt you. I regret it every day. It hurts my heart just to look at you and know I did something I never thought I could do. You're the one person whose feelings I truly care about. I want to protect you yet I was the one to stab you in the back. You don't deserve that. But I just want to let you know, I will always want you as more than just a friend. I- I love you Logan," Camille said the last part softly. She sniffled and stared out at the city, feeling bare, like she stripped away all her armor and was left with nothing.

Logan leaned in and wrapped his arms loosely around her neck. A smile broke across his face, crooked and sweet. He placed a kiss on her lips before whispering "I love you too, Camille."

Camille wasn't quite sure if she heard right. "But Logan, I- I betrayed you-"

"It's in the past now, Camille. This was the hardest month of my life. It killed me inside when I saw you at that theater in that blue dress. I don't want to be just friends, I can't be. I love you, Camille. I forgive you. Will you take me back?"

Camille nodded, suppressing a squeal. It didn't work. She squealed like a little girl and brought Logan in closer, finally knowing he was all hers and she could do whatever she wanted to him… Camille shook her head with a smile as if to clear those thoughts from her mind. Right now, she just loved being snug in his strong, safe arms.

**A/N I love Lomille! Take her back, Logan! Sheesh! How did you guys like it? Do I bomb at romance? It's sooo hard for me lol. I hope it was ok. Please review, it makes my lil heart happy.**


	16. Rain tastes good

**A/N Alright, this one is for rain tastes good, who wanted to see James bein' all homesick! It's for her birthday, so happy, happy birthday girl hope you love this and it's what you wanted! **

Day 3 of this new life, living in this new apartment in a strange new city. It was too different for a certain someone, too scary, too much to take in all at once even though it was what he always dreamed of.

That someone was a tall, muscular, gorgeous, and seemingly confident brunette.

James Diamond had always dreamt of this moment since he was born. Living in LA, becoming a future rock star with cute girls chasing him down, and the fact that his best friends were in this with him was the greatest thing he could have ever imagined, except for one little thing that was affecting all of it.

He was homesick, and quite literally, too. He could not sleep or eat or function. He was scared to death of this huge city. He never thought that he would feel this way but all he wanted to do was go home.

Not that he would ever tell his friends that. So for the third night in a row, James sat in the dingy little apartment living room with the television on mute, staring at the flashing lights and images blankly while his buddies were sound asleep in their newly assigned rooms. He felt so alone, even though 6 people lived in this tiny, cramped closet of an apartment. Back in Minnesota, he had a huge, lovely home that he shared with only his mother. He had all his favorite games and things and hockey awards and singing competition trophies. He had a school that he was insanely popular at, and an amazing hockey team, and even this really cute girl that he was trying to go after.

But here, all he had was a mean record producer that hated him and a chocolate milk barf stained carpet. He was uncomfortable and if he was completely honest with himself, he was terrified by this sudden change. Everything was so strange and unfamiliar and was he really ready for superstardom? He thought he was, but now that he thought about it, he really wasn't. He suddenly had so many doubts about himself. Was his voice good enough? Was he pretty enough? What if he can't dance? He never really took lessons except for a few ballet classes that his mom signed him and his friends up for.

Not only was he worried if he was good enough, but he worried for his friends. How would they handle this? He had heard many horror stories about innocent child stars being manipulated and used, or going down a bad path and od-ing in hotel rooms. The thought scared him to death. What if that happened to one of his friends? He would never forgive himself.

One month quickly passed by and James was exhausted from his lack of sleep. His apartment was a bit more comfy now that it was transformed into a teenage paradise, but he still couldn't sleep at night. It was getting bad now, to the point that he spent all night curled up on the ridiculously orange couch crying his eyes out, until early morning when he would finally doze off.

He refused to eat, too. It was fishstick Friday in 2J and everyone was pigging out on the crispy brown goodness, but once again, James just pushed his food around on his plate aimlessly.

"Bro, what is up with you?" Kendall's voice rang through James' ears, breaking him from his depressed thoughts. Suddenly, all eyes were upon him, scrutinizing him with concern. James sighed.

"Nothing, it's all good," James replied.

"Then why haven't you eaten anything in days?" Logan asked. "Come to think of it, you have been feeling off since we moved here. Are you sick, James?"

"No! I'm not sick!" James whined, defensive for some reason. He whacked away Logan's hand that was about to feel his forehead for fever. Logan retracted his hand, offended.

"Well maybe you should go to sleep early honey," Mrs. Knight suggested. She noticed her surrogate son was looking a bit peckish lately, not to mention pale and exhausted. Her motherly instincts were ringing full-force.

"Yeah, you want to be on you're A-game for tomorrow," Kendall said. They had a small performance tomorrow for a few hundred people at some theater Griffin wanted them to play at. They were going to be opening for a local band that was sort of popular around the area. Even Logan was excited for this. Carlos, well Carlos was excited for anything and Kendall had spent the past few days psyching them all up for their very first performance.

James was anything but excited for the show, though. Sure, he had been in several productions at his school but that was different. It was a small town, he knew everybody in the audience. And he worked on his lines for months. Right now, they had only learned 3 songs and he wasn't even sure if he knew all the words. Their set list was going to be "Famous", and "Any Kind Of Guy", and "Big Time Rush" and if he was asked to sing the chorus to any one of those songs right at that moment, he was sure he would flub the lines.

James just nodded his head and left the table without a word, escaping to his bed. Carlos, Logan and Kendall exchanged confused looks.

"Band meeting after dinner, just me and you 2," Kendall whispered to Logan and Carlos. He was starting to really worry for James. The brunette hadn't been the same since they left for LA. It was like as soon as they arrived in Minnesota, all the confidence was sucked out of the teenager leaving nothing but a shy, nervous shell.

20 minutes later, Carlos and Logan met Kendall down by the pool, which was empty for the night. The 3 boys rolled up their jeans and stuck their feet in. Carlos swirled his legs in the water, causing Kendall and Logan to become splashed by the cool pool water.

"Carlos, quit splashing and listen to me," Kendall said, mildly distracted by his youngest friend. "I'm worried about James. Has anyone else noticed anything strange about him lately?"

Carlos scrunched up his nose in thought. "Yeah, he has been acting weird. Maybe he's sad?"

"But about what?" Kendall asked, pondering what could have James acting so distant.

"Maybe he misses his teddy bear!" Carlos said after a second of thinking. Kendall and Logan gave him a look.

"Dude, he's 16," Logan said. "And missing a teddy bear wouldn't cause him to become to withdrawn. He barely even eats anymore! And whenever we are in the studio, he acts so shy and just lets Gustavo push him around."

Kendall's eyes darkened at this as he realized something. "That must be it! You are a genius, you know that Logan?" Kendall ruffled Logan's hair affectionately.

"Yeah, I know," Logan said with a blush. "But, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Gustavo pushes James around like unwanted cat food! He treats him like crap."

"He treats all of us like crap," Carlos pointed out.

"True, but he can be really mean to James sometimes," Kendall said, getting to his feet. "Come on, boys. We need to take care of something."

"Um, what?" Logan asked with a gulp. He didn't like where this was going. Kendall was the type to like violence.

"We are going to put Gustavo in his place for making James feel like this," Kendall said. He made sure his 2 young friends were following him before walking with a purpose out of the Palmwoods.

"Aw, man," Logan whined, trying to keep up with Kendall's long legs. "There's going to be violence, isn't there? Are we really going to walk all the way to Rocque Records? It's 9 o' clock at night!"

"Gustavo is always there late, scheming or whatever devils do. We can't just let him push James around like he's been doing, it's hurting him," Kendall said.

Logan just sighed. Carlos, who brought up the rear, huffing and puffing from trying to walk as fast as Kendall, mumbled, "I still say it's the teddy bear."

After walking several blocks, they finally approached Rocque Records and rode the elevator up to Gustavo's office. Kendall barged through the door and narrowed his eyes at the large, evil man, trying to look as menacing as possible. It was kind of hard to look menacing when you're a lanky teenage boy wearing a beanie.

"We have something to say to you!" The blonde announced, and he was proud to see Gustavo seemed startled for a split second.

"Um, who's 'we'?" Gustavo asked, quickly recovering. Kendall turned to find himself without back up and sighed exasperatedly.

"Guys!" He called, going back out to the hall, where Carlos and Logan leaned against a wall while coughing and wheezing from running after Kendall for a whole mile.

"We're scared!" Carlos said. "He's big, Kendall!"

Kendall groaned, grabbed both of his friends by their arms, and dragged them into the office. Gustavo looked amused, especially when the 2 smaller boys hid slightly behind Kendall.

"What are you dogs doing here?" Gustavo asked.

"We're here because you treat James like crap and we want to put you in your place!" Kendall said loudly.

"James is conceited and needs to be tamed," Gustavo said, mindlessly sharpening a pencil.

"But you're making him sad!" Carlos yelled, poking his head out from behind Kendall for a moment. He squeaked and quickly hid again, before Gustavo could pull out an Uzi or a professional wrestler on him. Who know what the scary man kept in his desk.

"Why do I care about James' emotional state?" Gustavo asked, though he had been noticing James seemed a bit depressed to be honest. Whenever he had met the boy in Minnesota and worked with him the first couple days, he was very confident and excited but that had quickly changed.

"Just quit being mean to him, Gustavo," Kendall said, trying to take a nice approach. To his surprise, Gustavo agreed.

"It's not like I'm ever mean to him, but I will try to be lighter on him tomorrow. I don't need him falling apart at his first show."

"Oh. Well, thanks," Kendall said.

'Yep," Gustavo said. "Now, get out of my office."

"Yes sir," Logan said, running out of the room as soon as Gustavo said that. Kendall and Carlos followed, feeling satisfied. Tomorrow should go by without a hitch, and there would be no more "sad-James".

James didn't get any sleep that night. He laid in his bed until the sun rose, worrying about tomorrow and wishing he was in his own bed. His blanket was itchy, Carlos snored and snorted, his room was too dark, and he just felt plain uncomfortable. A whole month and he hadn't gotten used to his new room yet. His room in Minnesota was perfect and snug and warm.

James turned onto his side, debating on waking up Carlos for some company, but he knew the smaller boy needed sleep for tomorrow. He sighed heavily and a lone tear escaped. He wished he would just feel at home here.

The next morning, James was groggy and touchy from lying in bed without sleeping all night. He grumbled to his friends incoherently and pushed his way to the bathroom, where he spent the next 3 hours showering and doing his hair and sitting and moping before they had to leave for the show.

"James, are you still alive in there?" Logan asked worriedly, knocking on the bathroom door.

"No," James said in the saddest voice Logan had ever heard. Logan raised an eyebrow and tried the door handle, which was surprisingly unlocked. He closed the door behind him and looked James up and down. His best friend's hair was perfectly done but he sat on the toilet lid, resting his forlorn face on his hands.

"Buddy, what's wrong?" Logan asked sympathetically. He was quite used to James getting in funks like these. He would get depressed over some trivial reason for a few minutes and after a compliment to his hair, he would bounce back to his full James-ness.

"Nothing," James said with a pout, always one to make things difficult.

"Come on, tell Logan all about it," the smart boy said with a silly grin. James smiled weakly. He always turned to Logan when something was wrong. He always knew just what to say, but this time James was afraid to tell him. This wasn't about someone who poked fun at his hair, or because he couldn't reach the notes to his favorite song. This was serious. Out of all 6 of them, James was the only one who hadn't adapted to their new life. And what would they think if they found out the person who was the reason why they moved in the first place just wanted to go home?

"Your hair looks shiny today," Logan said. James didn't react in the slightest. "Dude, are you seriously ok? You don't look so good."

"You just said my hair was shiny!"

"You know what I meant! You look exhausted. Are you going to be up for tonight?"

"I don't have much of a choice," James said, and Logan detected a hint of bitterness in his voice. "We better go before we're late, Loges."

Logan sighed and followed his friend out to their awaiting limo. When they got to their venue, Gustavo greeted James with a creepy grin.

"Jamesy! How are you today?" Gustavo asked in a happy, forced voice. Kelly gave him a freaked out look while Carlos, Kendall and Logan face palmed. James just blinked and made a quick escape to the dressing room. Gustavo shrugged.

"Sound check in 30 minutes, show in 2 hours!" The producer announced.

The boys were shown around the wings and backstage before sound check, than hung out in their dressing rooms until show time. James was nervous. He wanted so badly to just leave, but he sucked it up and warmed up his vocal chords with his friends. Before he knew it, it was time to head backstage. James snuck into the wings and peered out at the audience through the heavy curtains. There were much more than just a couple hundred people. The venue was small, but it was sold out. Gustavo seemed pleased and the boys were excited, but James' heart was thundering. The stage used to be his favorite place, even more so than the ice rink. The stage was his friend. Why was he suddenly so nervous?

"You ready James?" Carlos said suddenly, patting his back. James nearly jumped to the roof and forced a smile. He didn't have time to answer. Big Time Rush was announced onstage and the music started, and they ran out on stage and started their show, opening with "Famous".

Even though they had only learned all their choreography over the past couple weeks, they had all memorized it pretty well and whenever James' mind drew a blank, he just followed behind Kendall. The first verse of the song went well, as did the chorus, because James was able to follow his band mates. But when it came to his solo, he faltered immediately. As he expected, his lines completely flew from his mind and he was left just standing on the stage awkwardly, trying to the words to no avail.

Only a few seconds went by before Kendall realized what was happening and started singing James' lines, trying to save themselves, but what he didn't know was James that James was teetering on an emotional breakdown. Suddenly, the brunette dropped his mic and stormed off the stage in tears, leaving his band and the audience dumbfounded.

James ignored Gustavo's yells and rushed out of the venue. He could hear his friends running after him but he just picked up his pace. He was humiliated. He wanted to disappear.

"James, what was that?" Kendall asked, finally catching up to his friend. He grabbed James by the shoulder, forcing him to slow down.

"I-I don't know!" James wailed. "I'm sorry, ok? Just leave me alone. Finish the show without me."

"What? No way! We aren't playing our first show without you," Kendall said sternly.

"Why not? I'm probably out of the band anyway. Gustavo is going to kill me," James said, sitting on a curb and burying his face in his arms.

"Gustavo will get over it," Logan said. "We're pretty much unknown right now, nobody will even remember tonight. We're only worried about you right now. We know something is bothering you, bro. Is it Gustavo?"

"What? No, Gustavo's a goon," James said. "I don't know why I freaked out, tonight guys. I've never done that before. I never get that nervous."

"It happens to the best of us," Logan assured James, sitting next to him. "Don't worry about it. But I know it's more than just being nervous, am I right? Just tell us, James."

James was silent for a moment, holding back tears. He wanted to leave this crazy city. If Logan handed him a plane ticket and his suitcase right now, he would leave without a second thought.

"I wanna go home," James finally said in a barely audible voice. It took a moment for the words to register in his friends' minds.

"James, what do you mean?" Kendall asked, laying a gentle hand on his friends' back. The brunette sniffled and shuddered lightly, and Kendall realized he was crying. "James, what's the matter bro?"

"I don't like it here, guys. I'm scared and nervous and freaked out and I want to be in Minnesota."

"But I thought you wanted to be famous," Carlos said, confused.

"I thought so too, but I don't like it here," James said. "I miss Minnesota."

"But all you ever talked about was leaving Minnesota!" Carlos said.

"I know!" James wailed. "I'm so whacked."

Kendall laughed. "You are not whacked, dude. You're just homesick."

"I'm sorry, guys. I can't eat, I can't sleep. I'm really sorry," James said, feeling like a complete and total failure.

"Why are you sorry?" Kendall asked. "We're not upset, bro."

"But you will be. Gustavo is going to kick me out and I'm going to let him and I'm gonna just go back to Minnesota," James said.

"No, James, don't leave us!" Carlos cried, engulfing James in a bone crushing hug.

"Nobody is getting kicked out or moving to Minnesota," Kendall said incredulously. "James, this has been a dream for you since you were a baby! You want this so bad, anyone can see that. Anyone can see the passion in your eyes. You love singing and you love performing. And if you think I'm just going to let you fly home and give up before you even tried, than you have another thing coming."

James' eyes widened when strong arms hauled him to his feet and Kendall gripped his shoulders, staring into his eyes with a piercing, green gaze. "James, homesickness is normal. And the boys and I are going to help you overcome it. Now we are going back to the venue and Gustavo is going to drive us home, and we are going to try again next time."

"O-okay," James stuttered weakly, not knowing what else to do but agree with Kendall. They went back to the theater and explained what happened to Gustavo and Kelly. They were surprisingly easy on James, having seen this kind of thing happen in several bands before.

"We are going to have a sleepover just like we used to do in Minnesota," Kendall announced when they arrived at 2J. "Movies and junk food and goofing off and no thinking about the band tonight, only worry about having fun."

In an instant, Logan had an armful of cookies and chips from the kitchen and Carlos had a pile of blankets from the bedroom. James just laughed as they set up camp in the living room, shut off the lights, and started up one of his favorite movies.

"Oh! I have a surprise for you!" Carlos said, jumping out of his seat before the movie credits even started. He raced to his room and back to the couch, holding a box in hands. He gave it to James, smile beaming across his cheeks.

"What's this?" James asked, curious. He tore open the box and his face melted into a huge, child-like grin.

"I noticed you were sad a couple days and asked your mom to send you this in the mail I thought it would cheer you up," Carlos said. James pulled his favorite, love-worn teddy bear from the box and hugged it to his chest.

"Carlos! Come here, dude! Thanks!" James said, bringing his best friend in for a huge hug.

30 minutes later, James was curled up in a ball on the couch, clutching his teddy bear tightly. His mouth hung agape as he snored lightly, peaceful and unconscious to the world for the first time in too long.

"Told you guys it was the teddy bear," Carlos said, smiling down at his friend.

**A/N Hope you all liked it! Sorry for any errors, I am way too exhausted for proof reading this so I'm just gonna hope for the best and let you laugh at any mistakes haha. Thanks for reading! Reviews and requests=love. **

**Happy birthday, Rain! :D**


	17. courageous christmas kid

**This is a funny lil thing requested by courageous christmas kid Shout-out for her! Hope you guys get a giggle from it! And I made Logan squeak, a lot!**

Logan Mitchel scavenged the infamous Palmwoods halls in his quest to find a certain brunette drama queen who resides 2 doors down from him**. **He needed serious help right now and he knew that she was the only one who could do this for him.

He finally found her by the snack area, dressed in a tight chef's uniform and using the giant vending machine as a stand-in character for whatever role she was trying out for next, yelling obscenities at the inanimate object as if it was a person.

"I trusted you!" The girl screeched. "We were supposed to get married and become world famous chefs with 3 chubby children but then I find you and pudding girl together?" Suddenly, the girl brought her hand back and smacked the vending machine with all her might, skin making contact with the hunk of metal quite violently. Logan cringed at the sting that must have left behind but she never broke her character. Logan stared at her timidly, a little scared and a little turned on.

"Um, Camille?" He squeaked out, and the girl whipped around to face him, holding up a whisk as if it was a weapon, but when she saw Logan, she grinned hugely.

"Oh hey, Logan. What's up?" Camille asked.

"Um, I was just wondering, um, if, um… Logan stammered, eyeing the whisk nervously. Camille laughed and dropped the prop to the floor.

"Sorry, I get a bit into my character sometimes."

Logan stared at her like she was nuts. "A bit? Sometimes? Heh," he chuckled nervously.

Camille smiled and actually blushed, which sort of made Logan melt inside, not that he would admit it. He realized he was staring at her and quickly averted his eyes.

"Hey Camille, can you help me with something?"

Camille raised her perfectly trimmed eyebrows. "Um, sure Logan, what is it?"

"Can we go back to your apartment? I sort of want this done in private. Your dad isn't home, is he?"

"Exactly what kind of help do you need?" Camille asked, laughing with delight at how flustered this made Logan.

"What?" He asked, confused for a moment before turning bright red. "No! N-nothing like that I just… Oh come on!" Logan grabbed Camille's arm gently and dragged her up to her apartment and into her bathroom where he locked the door.

"Ooh, should I be scared?" Camille asked, amused by his actions. He scowled at her.

"No, this is just hard for me to admit, due to my manly pride-"

Camille snorted. "Manly?"

"Camille!"

"Sorry."

"Anyway, I was just wondering if maybe you can… Do my hair?" He asked softly, immediately staring at the floor in embarrassment.

"You want me to do your hair?" Camille asked, seemingly unfazed by the odd, cute request. "That's all? Why though?"

Logan shrugged and mumbled, "'Cause some guys made fun of it today and… Is my hair hip, Camille? Tell me the truth."

Camille's eyes shone with amusement at the adorable boy in front of her. "Well, it's… Cute."

"Cute? Great, that's just what I didn't want to hear! I want to be cool, Camille! I know I don't have much swag. Well, any swag for that matter. But I want a little bit!"

Camille laughed and sat Logan on the edge of the bathtub. "Well, if you want my honest opinion, I think your perfect just how you are but if you must get a new hairstyle, I'm your girl."

Logan looked up at Camille with dark, hopeful eyes. His cheeks were scarlet from her comment. "Really?"

"Yep. Stay here, I'll be right back!" Camille left and was gone for a good 30 minutes before coming back in with a bag full of supplies.

"Take off your shirt," she ordered. Logan squeaked and wrapped his arms protectively around his tiny frame.

"W-what?"

"Oh, just do it!" Camille exclaimed, taking the bottom of his t-shirt in her fingers and hauling it over his head. Logan gasped and tried feebly to cover up his abs.

"Hmm, not bad," Camille said approvingly before handing him an old, baggy shirt. "Put this on. I don't want you to ruin your good clothes."

Logan couldn't put the t-shirt on quick enough. "Why would I ruin my clothes?"

"You'll see, just hold on. Get on your hands and knees and lean your head over the tub."

"But why?" Logan asked, resulting in Camille smooshing a finger against his heart-shaped lips.

"Ssh! No questions."

"Oh, ok," Logan said, a bit stunned. He did as Camille instructed and jumped when she grabbed the shower head, pulled it down, and sprayed his hair with it, completely soaking his dark spikes. He had no idea what she was doing, but he trusted her. Camille was the hippest girl she knew.

15 minutes went by and Logan's knees were getting sore, but she finally let him sit up on the edge of the tub and attacked his head with a blow dryer and her fingers before going at it with a pair of thinning sheers and some trimming scissors. He was antsy and anxious the entire time, continually asking if she was done yet while bouncing his knees like Carlos on a sugar high.

"Finished!" Camille announced dramatically, lifting him to his feet and bringing him to the mirror. Logan's excited grin quickly morphed into a quivering grimace of shock.

"Camille, what did you _do?" _He cried, arching his eyebrows in an evil fashion. Camille just grinned proudly.

"You look great, Logan! Look at you!"

"I see me! I- no! What am I, emo?" Logan cried. His normally dark brown spikes were now combed down and pushed to the left side of his face, covering his eye. His hair was naturally dark but it was now jet-black and shaggy, with Elmo-red streaks put in sporadically.

"It's _cool, _Logan. Isn't that what you wanted?" Camille asked innocently.

"No! I wanted normal and un-nerdy, not My Chemical Romance! Oh Camille, I can't go out looking like this! I have to hide here! Your bathroom is my home for the next… However long it takes for this to go away! Goodbye, social life, what I had of one anyway. And the band, adios Big Time-" Thwap!

Logan broke out of his rant, his cheek stinging and eyes wide with surprise. "Did you just slap me?"

"Yes, you were rambling," Camille said.

"Oh, thank you."

Camille took Logan by the shoulders and forced him out of her apartment. "You look amazing, Logan. Quit freaking out. Go, live a little!" With one last shove, Logan was out of the apartment with the door slammed behind him. He turned and pounded on the door, desperate to get out of the public eye even though there was nobody around. When Camille made no move to open the door, he took off in a run to the short distance to his apartment and ran straight to his room. Luckily, none of his friends were home to see his horrible new 'do. He pile-drived into his bed and burrowed under his covers, planning on staying hidden for the rest of his life, or until the dreadful red color faded.

Several hours later, he heard incessant pounding on his door.

"Logan, open up! Why did you lock yourself in your room?" Kendall asked. It was 8 in the evening and Logan was absent all day, even for dinner.

"Go away!" Logan said. He felt like he was maybe blowing this out of proportion but he was seriously mortified by his hair. He just wanted it back to its normal, spikey, nerdy ways.

"But this is my room too!" Kendall whined.

"There's a nice comfy couch waitin' for you in the living room!"

"Lo-Gan!" Kendall whined. He hated when Logan got in these funks of his, but he was also worried about what made him so upset.

"Ken-Dall!" Logan whined back.

"Can you just tell me what the matter is? It's just me in here. Carlos and James are in the lobby!" Kendall turned to face James and Carlos and gave them the "shush" gesture. They nodded eagerly and kept their mouths in a tight line.

"Will you promise not to laugh?" Logan asked pitifully. Kendall rolled his eyes.

"I promise, now get out here."

A moment later, Kendall heard the pitter-patter of Logan's stocking feet across the floor and he opened the door halfway so he could pull Kendall in by his arm.

"Oh my God!" Kendall shouted.

Suddenly, Carlos and James flooded the room and burst into hysterical laughter at Logan's hair.

"Dude, what did you do?" Carlos wheezed through his laughing. Logan just looked so… Emo. If there was such thing as a timid, emo nerd, Logan was it.

"I did nothing! Camille did this to me!" Logan said, turning red with embarrassment. He looked at Kendall with pleading eyes. "I can't look like this forever."

Kendall smirked. "You aren't going to look like this forever. It will wear off in a few months."

"_Months?"_ Logan squeaked. He sounded like a chipmunk.

"Relax, Griffin is always complaining about how we need a bad boy. You're it, Logan," Carlos said, not helping as usual.

"My mom will kill me!" Logan said.

"Chicks dig emo boys," James said. "All you need is some spikey cuffs and a chain and you're good!"

"And you need to start listening to simple plan, and you have to look like someone just kicked your puppy all the time," Carlos said.

Logan looked at his friends with the most appalled, hopeless eyes they'd ever seen before collapsing on his bed and letting out a dramatic moan. James sighed.

"Dude, I'll fix it for you," James said, hauling the small boy to his feet easily.

"Really, you will?" Logan asked with a hopeful smile. James whipped his comb out of his pocket.

"This looks like a job for my lucky comb. Let's go, Lo-gain." James swept Logan off his feet and swung him over his shoulder so he could bring him to the bathroom. James stared at his head for a full minute before smirking.

"Dude, this is wash-out dye," James said incredulously. "You got worked up over nothing." The taller boy shoved Logan's head underneath the tap in the tub and washed out black and red dye for what seemed like forever, before trimming his hair so it was all the same length again and spiking it with his favorite gel.

"There, you're all nerdy again," James announced, quite proud of himself.

"Erm, thanks," Logan said, checking himself out in the mirror. He grinned and nodded his head before bringing both hands to the sides of his hair, running his fingers through the soft spikes. 'Heh, I look good. Well, I'm going to go yell at Camille for almost ruining my hair."

"Good luck, little buddy," James said. Logan left his apartment and pounded on the door of 4J. Camille answered, fully expecting a nerdy Logan to come back as quick as he did.

"You! I have something to say to you!" Logan said, waving his finger angrily. Camille casually leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed and chocolate eyes looking at him expectantly.

"And what's that, Logan?" She asked.

"You-you-I," Logan stuttered, lowering his finger with defeat. Camille lunged forward, grabbed Logan by his cheeks and smashed her lips against his in a somewhat brutal kiss. She pulled off of his lips with a pop and stared up at his stunned eyes lovingly.

"Stick with the nerd look," Camille said. "It works on you."

Logan just squeaked.

**A/N Ok, I'm not quite sure what mind I was in while writing this so… Yeah, haha. I just got back from the fair so my mind is boggled from spinning around so much and nearly flying out of the Himalaya. So I'm not responsible for this craziness! And I needed to write something fun because I'm half dead now that Mystery of You is over. If you haven't read it yet, check it out when you can. It's a fun diddle story. Hope you liked this! Review and request! Loveth you alllllllll.**

**Oh, ps, I love MCR and Simple Plan, and I love Logan's long unspiked hair. I miss it. A lot. Gah.**


	18. anonymousskrtle

**A/N Hey it's been awhile! Who missed me? Haha. I actually wasn't planning on being able to post anything til during the week but I'm so freaking pumped right now I can't sleep! Guess who got to see her (2****nd****) favorite band ever in concert tonight! I'm freaking out! I saw RED which is a Christian metal band, if you never heard of them check them out, they are my inspiration! Anyway, it was so rockin! They had walls of flames and fire on the stage and fireworks shootin out the back of the stage! Incredible! It was so hot. Then I went down to their tourbus and met them! I got pictures and autographs and the drummer rubbed my back! And I spent 12 hours at the fair today and 6 hours last night so I'm kinda crazy right now. My head won't stop spinning from all the crazy rides. Anyway, this is for anonymous skrtle woot! Check out her stuff, she beats up the boys pretty dang good! Whoooo I'm so PUMPED!**

**Rated T for language and meanness. Italics are a flashback.**

"Kendall?" A small voice hissed through the darkness, waking said boy from his deep slumber. A hand helped shake him awake roughly, and he grumbled in his groggy daze.

"Leave me 'lone, I'm sleepin'…"

"But Kendall, I need you," the voice whimpered. Worry bells rang through Kendall's mind and he forced his eyes open and looked at the digital clock that read 12:00 am. He then looked up to see Carlos' hovering over him, the green light from the clock glowing onto his dark skin.

"'Litos? I thought you were with the new girl at the fair. Why are you home early?" Kendall asked. Carlos had finally gotten up the confidence to ask out the newest and prettiest Palmwoods resident after he had seen her eating corndogs in the lobby. They went to a fair tonight and Kendall wasn't expecting him home 'til at least one am.

Carlos shrugged. "She was mean to me."

Kendall raised his eyebrows and sat straight up so he could get a better look at his small friend. He could see sadness in his chocolate brown eyes, and for some reason, Carlos held a hand over his nose. "Hey what happened, buddy?" Kendall's stomach clenched when he saw one crystal tear fall from Carlos' dewy eyes, and he immediately pulled the smaller boy down beside him on the bed. "'Litos, what's wrong?"

"I can't stop bleeding," Carlos admitted guiltily, turning his face away from Kendall. He felt bad for waking Kendall up, but the events of the night thoroughly shook him up and he needed Kendall right now. He needed to know he was safe, protected, and the blonde always knew how to do that.

Green eyes pierced into Carlos' brown ones as Kendall took Carlos' face in his hands and gently tugged it upward. "You're hurt? Where are you bleeding, buddy? Is it your nose?" Carlos nodded. "Ok, let me see," Kendall told him, but Carlos of course refused to remove his hands from his face.

"Buddy, you gotta let me see," Kendall said, prying Carlos' hands away from his nose. Finally, Kendall's strength over powered Carlos' and he got a clear view of the smaller boy's nose, which was already bruising and had blood seeping from both nostrils. "Oh, Carlos. Come here, buddy." Kendall acted quickly and took him to the kitchen. He sat Carlos down at the table, flipped on the lights, and wetted a dishtowel before pressing it gently against his nose. Carlos fussed and tried to back away, but Kendall put his hand to the back of his head to keep him steady.

"Kendall, owie," Carlos whined.

"Hold on, you're ok. We gotta stop the bleeding buddy," Kendall cooed. Surprisingly, Carlos obliged and let Kendall take care of him. The bleeding finally ceased after a couple minutes and Kendall tenderly checked his nose to make sure it wasn't broken, which thank God it wasn't.

"You have such a tiny nose," Kendall said with a smirk as he placed an icepack on Carlos' bruised nose and held it there. "I never noticed that before."

The comment received no reaction from Carlos. No giggle, no punch in the arm, no eye roll. The Latino only sat there with a far-away look in his eyes, absent-mindedly rubbing his neck.

"So how did you end up with a bloody nose, Carlos? Did you fall?" Kendall asked. Carlos shook his head, choosing to stay silent. He didn't want to talk about what happened. He just wanted to disappear for a while. He wanted to lie down and fall asleep with Kendall's arm around him, so nothing could hurt him anymore.

Kendall studied his friend intently. Something wasn't right. Carlos was acting strangely. He looked so scared and so sad. Something was seriously upsetting the younger boy. "Carlos, tell me what's wrong right now. What happened at the fair?"

"Nothing," Carlos mumbled tiredly. "I'm going to bed." He tried to get up, but Kendall sat him right back now.

"Uh-uh, I don't think so. Not until you tell me what went on tonight," Kendall demanded. Carlos squirmed in his grasp and rubbed his neck, avoiding the taller boys gaze.

"'Litos, what happened to you buddy?" Kendall asked, softening his voice. Carlos looked up with heartbreakingly sad eyes and wiped at his tears. Suddenly, Kendall was wrapped in the tightest embrace when Carlos got up and threw himself onto Kendall, wrapping his arms around the blonde's neck and his legs around his waist as if he was 3 years old. His entire body shook with sobs. Kendall was shell-shocked for a moment, unsure of what was happening. He just knew something was very wrong with Carlos.

After a few seconds Kendall willed his legs to move so he could carry his friend over to the couch. He lowered himself onto the orange cushions and let Carlos cry in his lap. He just held him and rocked him gently, whispering "Shh's" into his ear. After a couple minutes, Kendall carefully pushed Carlos away and tugged down the collar of his slightly blood stained hoodie to see what was hurting him. Kendall gasped in a mix of shock, fear, and anger at what he saw on his baby brother's neck.

"Carlos? Who did this to you?" Kendall said, and his voice was unsteady as his eyes welled up with tears. Carlos refused to answer and instead burrowed his face into Kendall's shoulder. The blonde took Carlos by the arms and shook him, causing the small boy to whimper. "Who, Carlos!"

"K-Kendall," Carlos cried, and Kendall realized that in his anger he was holding Carlos a bit too tightly. He loosened his grip and brought Carlos close to his chest.

"I'm sorry, buddy. But you didn't just fall tonight, did you? Tell me the truth. You can tell me anything. I need to know."

With one last sob, Carlos told Kendall what happened to him.

_Carlos and the new girl, Lilly, had a great time at the fair. It was nearing midnight and they were getting ready to leave when 3 large guys approached them. The guy in the middle, who was the largest and wore his hair spikey, had the scariest look on his face that Carlos had ever seen. He had no clue who these guys were but Lilly seemed to know them._

"_David, go away," she said bitterly. Not like "David" was going to listen._

"_Lilly, what the fuck are you doing?" David growled, glaring at Carlos up and down._

"_I'm with my boyfriend," Lilly said simply. "Leave us alone." Lilly grabbed Carlos' hand and tried to walk past the bully, but David pushed Carlos back. _

"_Hold on. Who are you?" David asked Carlos._

"_I'm Carlos," he said, taking a bite of corndog nervously. David didn't even seem to listen._

"_Lilly, I know you're pissed at me but you're really going to cheat on me with some beaner?"_

"_We are over, we broke up 2 weeks ago," Lilly said in a bored voice._

"_We aren't over until I say it's over. So why don't you..." David poked Carlos in the chest. "Go back to Mexico where you came from."_

"_I'm not from Mexico," Carlos said innocently. Suddenly, the 2 guys next to David surrounded Carlos, looking pissed. _

"_Oh, yeah? Well you sure as hell look like it," one of David's friends said._

"_Come on Lilly, let's go," David said, taking the girl by the wrist and pulling her. Carlos scowled. He did not want this girl going off alone with these mean guys._

"_She's with me," Carlos said, pulling his date back towards him, but David pulled her away easily and got into Carlos' face._

"_What are you going to do about it, you nasty immigrant?" David growled. Carlos looked like he was slapped in his face. Why was he being so mean?_

"_Can you just leave us alone?" Carlos asked timidly. He wished his best friends were here. He always had James, Kendall and Logan at the ready to back him up if need be. Kendall always seemed to be able to break a fight up before it even started._

"'_Can you just leave us alone'?" David's friend mimicked in a Mexican accent. Lilly actually giggled at this, and Carlos looked at her, hurt._

"_I'll just be leaving now," Carlos muttered, turning around sadly. He knew he was about to cry soon and he did not want to give these bullies the satisfaction. He turned around to leave, but 6 beefy hands reached out and stopped him. A fist crashed into his nose and the impact knocked him to the ground. Tears welled up in his eyes but he stared daggers at David, who was the one who had punched him. He was about to jump to his feet and start throwing fists but David's friends tackled him to the ground. Carlos struggled to get free under the heavy weight. Fear cursed through his veins. The fair was nearly empty now and nobody was around to help him. He looked over at Lilly pleadingly but she just shrugged her shoulders and looked away._

"_Oh look, is the little Mexican crying?" David taunted. "This is ridiculous. Grow a pair, kid! I fucking hate Mexicans."_

"_I'm not Mexican!" Carlos cried angrily. David was seething with anger now._

"_You stay the fuck away from my girl, ya hear?" David warned, wrapping his meaty fingers easily around Carlos small neck. He squeezed tightly and laughed as he watched the small boy beneath him turn red and squirm around, eyes widening with panic. Just when Carlos was turning purple, David released him from the death grip and let his head loll to the ground. Carlos coughed, choked and sputtered, desperate to get air in. He watched the mean gang walk away laughing, leaving him alone on the ground. Afraid they would come back to finish the job, Carlos heaved himself off the ground and went to his car so he could drive home._

"They choked you?" Kendall asked incredulously, rubbing Carlos' neck gently. Purple bruises were littered over the delicate skin in the shape of long, fat fingers. Carlos nodded and let out another sob. "Come here buddy, I gotcha. I won't let them hurt you again, ok?" He hugged Carlos tightly, running his hands through the scared boy's hair. His first priority was to calm Carlos down. The younger boy was just beside himself with hurt and fear. He rubbed his back and whispered soothing words into his ear until the heart breaking cries softened to little hiccups and sniffles.

"I hate it, Kendall," Carlos confessed, scooting off of Kendall's lap so he could lie down and rest his head on the taller boy's thighs.

"What do you hate, bro?" Kendall asked, playing with Carlos' soft black tufts of hair.

"M-me," Carlos said, squeezing his eyes shut to stop the flow of more tears. It didn't work; once again, there was a waterfall pouring down his flushed cheeks.

"What do you mean, 'Litos?" Kendall asked softly.

"I hate _me, _Kendall. I'm so sick of being made fun for being Hispanic. They were so mean to me, Kendall. Just because I look the way I do."

Kendall felt a surge of anger and pity surge through him. A part of him wanted to hurt David, no, he wanted to _kill_ David. But the other part of him was in disbelief, because how could anyone want to hurt this kid? Carlos was so sweet, so innocent. He did nothing to deserve to be treated this way. He did nothing to deserve to feel so spiteful of his own race.

"Carlos, those guys were jerks. They would have picked on you no matter what you look like. What they did to you was cruel. You should be proud of who are you, buddy. Not ashamed."

"But everybody hates me for it, Kendall. They don't even take the time to get to know me, they just judge me on my skin color. They don't even care that I'm loveable!"

"Then that's their problem, Carlos. If they can't see how awesome they are, then it's their loss."

"I just wish I wasn't Latino anymore. I want to be normal."

"Normal? What the heck is normal?" Kendall asked. "You are Carlitos, our crazy Latino. You're spicy and you're funny and you can dance like no one else in our band."

Carlos giggled. "Really Kendall, _spicy?"_ He said dryly, rolling his eyes. Kendall smiled at the sound of his younger brother's infectious giggle, but it quickly faded into a look of sadness. Carlos was still hurt, physically and emotionally. It would take a little while for these scars to heal.

"We love you, Carlos. Just the way you are," Kendall said soothingly, rubbing his hand up and down Carlos' spine. The smaller boy felt his eyes drooping closed with exhaustion. "I'll always be here for you. I won't let anyone else hurt you."

Carlos let sleep over take his sore body, feeling loved and protected.

**A/N Blah, I need to go to bed. Work in the morning. Poor Carlos, David is a very mean person and I don't share his views. Remember, these are just characters and this is just a story. I'm not racist or anything, I promise. To me God created us all the same. Love you all! Please review? Please? Yay!**


	19. bootsnopals

**A/N I love doing these requests, so much! Like they are so much fun! This is for my bootsie! Boot n opals, who requested that James and Kendall get into a fight! I miss you girl :'( Hope you enjoy!**

James was mad. He had never been so upset in his whole life, not even when Cuda discontinued his favorite "Tigers Prowl" man spray. He knew it was foolish of him to be acting so childishly while he was onstage, but he was so sick of this! Every concert, every song, Kendall was front and center. He belted out the most solos and he got the coolest dance moves. This wasn't even Kendall's dream! This was _his_ dream, why couldn't Gustavo and the band see that? It was so frustrating to even be on the same stage with Kendall anymore. James was flat out jealous. He wasn't quite sure what mind he was in tonight at this particular show, but suddenly he had enough of Kendall stealing the spotlight and more or less pushed his blonde friend to the side and belted out Kendall's next lines. Kendall just stared at him with stunned green eyes, and Carlos and Logan watched them warily, worried about what was suddenly going on between the 2 best friends.

But Kendall ignored it. He let James get whatever he was feeling out of his system. Kendall would never fight him onstage. No, he would save it for after the show. And that's exactly what he did. As soon as they finished their encore and the curtain closed, Kendall turned to James and shoved him harshly.

"What was that, James?" Kendall practically roared. Carlos and Logan jumped backwards, frightened. Kendall and James rarely fought but when they did, it was scary. They were both big boys with big tempers.

"What was what?" James yelled. "The fact that you always upstage me and steal my fans, or sing the verses that are clearly in my vocal range? You have been the star of this band since we started and I'm sick of it."

Kendall flinched, visually hurt by his words. But this was Kendall, and his hurt transformed into anger in mere seconds. "Don't tell me your jealous, _Jamie_. Seriously dude, grow up."

James huffed. "You know that my grandparents were coming to this show, yet you still didn't let me have the spotlight once! Every time I try to interact with the fans, you always cut me off! And you always do bigger and better dance moves than I do."

"I just do what Gustavo tells me what to do! Maybe he just thinks I have more talent than you do. He did pick me at the auditions, after all. Not you."

Logan sucked in a deep breath and Carlos cringed. This was not going to end well.

"That's a low blow, dude," James said through gritted teeth. Kendall knew how sensitive he was when it came to that subject. Kendall instantly regretted his words, of course. He always said things he didn't mean when he was angry. He knew James worked just as hard as any of them and had tons of talent. It wasn't his fault Gustavo made him the leader.

"Guys, maybe we should cool down now," Logan said timidly. The sound and light crew were staring at the fighting boys now, and if Gustavo found out they were fighting he would blow his gasket.

"I wish you weren't in the band," James said softly. "You were just created to be the hot front man, when everyone knows I have the heart and the soul and the drive that you lack. You don't deserve to even be in Big Time Rush."

"James, dude," Carlos said. Kendall's eyes were filled with emotion, flashing back and forth from hurt to angry.

"Is that really what you think?" Kendall asked sadly. He never imagined the day James turned on him. He counted on the taller boy, for many reasons. To his dismay, James nodded.

"You have always stolen the spotlight, from day one. You always got the lead role in the school plays, you got front row in choir in 7th grade, you were team captain in hockey for every season we ever played. You have always been the 'leader', expecting us to follow you around like little lost puppy dogs and I'm sick of it, dude. I'm done with it, I'm done with you."

Kendall swallowed hard. He could feel himself tearing up but he ignored it. Anger built up inside of him and he clenched his fists on his hips. "I'm done with _you_, James! I am so sick of your constant complaining!"

"Guys, maybe-"

"Shut up, Logan!" Kendall yelled, making the smaller boy yelp and jump behind Carlos.

"Don't ever yell at Logan," James said protectively, appalled that Kendall would ever raise his voice at their youngest friend.

"What are you going to do about?" Kendall asked. James slowly walked towards him.

"Don't push me," James warned. "Just admit that what you're doing is wrong and share the spotlight for once!"

"Not until you admit that you're a spoiled brat for once!" Kendall yelled, backing up.

"Guys!" Logan yelled, seeing the inevitable disaster that was soon to happen as they moved closer and closer to the edge of the stage which was hidden by the curtain. "Please don't fight guys!"

Logan's pleas were ignored. James lunged at Kendall and punched him in the jaw. Kendall staggered back into the curtain, just barely missing the edge of the 10 foot stage. The blonde looked at James, a betrayed look written across his features. He lifted his fist to throw a punch at James, but the bigger boy punched him first with brute force, fist colliding with his nose. Blood spilled onto his knuckles and Kendall fell back. This time, he went through the curtain and tumbled off of the stage. Carlos and Logan yelled out in alarm, and all three of the boys panicked when they heard a loud "crack!" and a cry of pain.

"Kendall!" James cried. He maneuvered himself through the curtain and lowered himself off of the stage. There were still a few fans left in their seats, watching the scene in shock, but James didn't care about that. His best friend was lying on the floor, cradling his arm and crying. His face was red and tears streaked down his cheeks. Blood gushed from his nose that he prayed he didn't break.

"Kendall I am so sorry," James said. He let Logan push him aside so he could tend to his injuries.

"Kendall! What hurts buddy!" Logan asked.

"My wrist," Kendall whimpered. Logan tenderly took it into his hands.

"It's broken. We gotta get you to the hospital. Come on, can you stand up?" Logan asked, assisting him to his feet. Carlos rushed forward to help, while James stood awkwardly to the side. He felt in-the-way, and very guilty. He hurt Kendall. He had never punched him so hard in his life, and it ended in Kendall getting injured. He wanted to jump off the edge of the earth about now.

The boys rushed off to the hospital without even a second glance at James. The handful of fans still in the venue looked at him in shock. Even though they hadn't seen what happened, it was as if they could tell it was all James' fault their idol had been lying on the floor, crying. James stalked off to the tour bus. He needed to be alone. Now that the fight was over, he realized he hadn't meant a word he had said. He was being selfish and got caught up in the moment. How could he hurt his best friend like that?

A couple of hours passed and Logan finally arrived back to the tour bus.

"Logan! What took so long? It's been hours. I was getting worried," James said, but he quickly noticed someone was missing. "Hey, where's Kendall? Is he ok?"

"He hit his head when he fell off of the stage," Logan explained. "He has to stay the night at the hospital, just for observation. He was complaining of a bad headache."

"A bad headache?" James asked. He leaned against a wall and let his head hit it dramatically. "This is all my fault!"

"No duh."

James whimpered. "Are you mad at me?"

"No, I'm not mad at you," Logan said gently. "I know you didn't mean to maim Kendall."

"I maimed him?" James squeaked.

"Well, you shoved him off of a stage, gave him a concussion, broke his wrist, and bruised his jaw and nose. It's not pretty."

James blinked. He really needed to learn his own strength. "I'm a horrible person!" He suddenly wailed, rushing forward so he could bury his face in Logan's t-shirt. Logan patted his back awkwardly and pushed the taller boy off of him when his collar became soaked with tears and snot.

"James, you're not horrible. Though it may seem like it right now. Come on, I'll give you a ride to the hospital." Logan grabbed James, who was still blubbering, by the arm and led him to the car and shoved him inside.

"You know you said some pretty mean things that you need to apologize for," Logan said. "I now you're sorry but you need to let Kendall know that. You know Kendall would never intentionally steal your spotlight. He thinks of you as the heart and soul behind this band, and you are."

"I know," James mumbled. "I just feel like he's always tried to be better than me, Logan. Maybe he never intentionally steals my spotlight, but he always does, ever since I was little."

Logan scowled. "I guess you forgot some little details than, huh? Like when you said Kendall got front row in choir first, remember he denied the spot and let the second person in line have it, which just happened to be you? Remember when he got the lead role in the 6th grade school play and he feigned sickness so that the understudy could take his spot? Who was the understudy?"

"I was," James said softly, feeling guiltier by the second.

"And don't you remember you begged coach to let Kendall be team captain? Let's face it. Out of all 4 of us, Kendall is the only one who can possibly lead an entire hockey team to the finals. And most importantly, who conned Gustavo into letting you come to LA to make your dreams come true?"

"Kendall did," James said, shrinking down into his seat. He wanted to disappear.

"He gave up everything for you, James. He put his dreams of hockey on hold and helped make you into a star. His entire life, Kendall has always put you first. He thinks the world of you, James. He would literally do anything for you. And he won't admit it, but he's really upset right now. He thinks you hate him."

"I don't hate him!" James said. "He's my best friend. I could never hate him."

The rest of the drive was silent. When they arrived to the hospital, James ran to Kendall and squeezed him tightly, only letting go when the blonde started to wheeze.

"Kendall I'm so sorry I didn't mean to push you off a giant stage and break your bones and bruise you and say all that evil stuff that I didn't mean a word of!" James burst out in one breath. He sat on the edge of Kendall's bed and got a good look at his best friend. He had punched him so hard in the nose that it actually gave him a black eye. His jaw was yellowed with a bruise. "Does it hurt a lot buddy?" James asked, touching his eye gently. Kendall flinched.

"A little," Kendall lied. It kind of hurt a lot. He had never been punched so hard in his life.

"I don't know why I acted like that tonight, Kendall. And you have my permission to hate me for the rest of my life." James said seriously. Kendall rolled his eyes.

"I'm not going to hate you for the rest of your life. I said some pretty low things too. We both know that when we're angry, we say stuff we don't mean. That's just how you and I work."

James nodded. "I'm really sorry, Kendall. I was wrong. You've done nothing but help me."

Kendall shrugged. "I just don't like it when we fight. We've been best buds since pre-K. I want to forget this ever happened." He eyed his casted wrist warily. "Well, that would be kind of hard with this stupid thing. How am I supposed to perform with a giant cast on my wrist? Looks like you'll be center stage just like you wanted to be, you'll have to cover for me."

"Dude I don't even care about that," James said. "The 4 of us, we're brothers of the ice but now we're brothers of the stage. I have to learn how to share the stage. You and Carlos and Logan deserve the spotlight, too."

"And I'll talk to Gustavo about letting you have more solos. I'm sorry you ever felt like I was trying to take your dream away from you or whatever."

"Yeah, I know," James said. "Can we just hug now and stop talking about it?"

"Yeah, I like that idea." Kendall leaned forward and hugged James to his chest. Even though he wasn't as tiny or in need of protection as Carlos and Logan, Kendall still felt as if James was his little brother. "I'd do anything for you James," Kendall added.

James released Kendall from the hug and raised his eyebrows. "Really? So you'd dye your hair chestnut brown like mine and start using Cuda products? Because really, blonde is not your color and you need some tanning action- Ow!" James yelled when Kendall hit him in the chest with his cast.

**A/N Wow that was really hard to end. I was in a sappy mood so that was super sappy. I could have just kept going on and on but then it would have been a chick flick. Please review!**


	20. jenizzle off da chain

**A/N So it's 3 am and I can't sleep because my throat has never hurt this much in my life. So, I shall inflict my pain on my little Carlitos in a request from jendizzle off the chain. Yep.**

It was Tuesday afternoon in the tiny, squished sound booth nestled inside the depths of Rocque Records, where the 4 boys were laying down the tracks for the radio version of "Worldwide". Or they were trying to, anyway.

"Did I awake you outta your dreams? I'm sorry but I couldn't sleep," James belted.

"You calm me down there's something 'bout the sound of your voice," Kendall sang smoothly.

"I nev- vvvttt. Mmmph, ughhhh, ergh!" Carlos cried out in muffled frustration, hands attacking his arms and chest wildly.

"Dude, what are you doing?" Logan whined, ripping off his headphones. Kendall and James stared at Carlos like he was a dancing monkey, and Gustavo seemed more than slightly miffed.

"Dog, that was the poorest excuse I've heard for singing since 'Yard Squirrel Christmas'!" Gustavo's voice boomed through the sound booth.

"Sorry," Carlos said sadly, itching his body furiously. "I'm just so itchy."

"Then get out of my studio," Gustavo started calmly, but it quickly changed to an angry scream, "_And take a flea bath!"_

"Ouch," Carlos said, slightly hurt. "I _liked_ Yard Squirrel Christmas."

"Carlos, why are you itchy?" Logan asked, to which the Latino boy just shrugged.

"Fleas?" Carlos suggested. He wouldn't actually be that surprised if it was true.

"No, you do not have fleas," Logan said. "Sorry Gustavo, I changed our laundry soap a few days ago, he might just be having a reaction."

Gustavo made some angry sounds and waved them off. "Well go fix it and come back tomorrow, not-itchy!"

"Thanks Gustavo!" Carlos said excitedly. Honestly, he wasn't sure how much longer he would last in the studio. He was starting to feel kind of hot, and his head seemed to be throbbing in time with the music. It was unpleasant.

The boys piled into the BTRMobile and headed to their apartment. "Dudes, we have the day off and the apartment to ourselves since Mama Knight and Katie are out of town!" James exclaimed. "I say we have a hockey party!"

"Yeah!" Kendall said, slapping James a high-five.

Logan shrugged. "As long as nothing gets broken, I'm in. Carlos, go change into some clothes that haven't been washed in the new soap I bought."

"Ok," Carlos said, skipping to his bedroom. He stripped from his blue and grey striped hoodie and screeched at what he found. There, all over his abdomen, chest, and arms were the most hideous red bumps he had ever seen in his life. They hadn't been there this morning! Or maybe Carlos was just too tired to pay attention when he dressed, because most mornings he spent with his eyes ¾ of the way closed with only his friends to guide him along.

"Dude, what the- whoa!" Logan exclaimed while barging into the bedroom to find Carlos covered in a horrible looking rash.

"Your laundry soap is mean!" Carlos cried.

"Oh-no, that's not the laundry soap, buddy," Logan said. "That's chickenpox."

At the sound of the word chickenpox, Kendall and James popped up behind Logan, not believing their ears.

"Carlos has chickenpox?" James cried, followed by a girlish scream. He started to run frantically around the room, grabbing his blanket and pillow and lucky comb because no way was he going to stay in the same room as Mr. Chickenpox boy.

"James!" Logan yelled, slapping the pretty boy on the butt. "You already had the chickenpox in kindergarten, calm it down."

"Oh. Ha. I knew that," James said coolly.

"Lo-gan," Carlos whined. He was feeling a bit scared. What were all these strange bumps, and why were they so horribly itchy?

"James, Kendall, go watch TV for a bit," Logan said. "I'll take care of Carlitos. Come on buddy, lay down." Logan led Carlos to his bed and laid him down, then handed him a pair of pajamas. "Change into these and I'll be right back."

"Pajamas? But it's 1 in the afternoon," Carlos said.

"I know, but you are sick and you need to stay in bed for a few days."

"A few _days?_ But I don't even feel sick, Logie!" Carlos whined. Logan laid a hand upon Carlos' forehead.

"Sorry buddy, but you're feeling a bit warm. I'm gonna go get the thermometer." Logan left for a few minutes so Carlos could change and arrived back with his temporal scanner thermometer, along with a bottle of Calamine lotion to help his itching. Logan pressed the device against Carlos' temples and let it beep before reading the digital numbers.

"One hundred degree's even," Logan said. "Tell me the truth, how sick do you really feel? Come on, you can tell Doctor Logan." The brunette poked Carlos in the ribs, making the Latino smile.

"My head is hurting, and I'm itching really badly. Now that I'm in bed, I'm kind of tired, too." Carlos yawned and snuggled under his covers. "But I really don't feel very bad, Logie."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that will change soon," Logan said, knowing how sick chickenpox could make a teenager. "You try and get some sleep, ok? Here, rub some of this on your chest and arms, since that's the only place you seem to have the pox right now. I'll check on you later, ok?"

"Ok, thanks Logan," Carlos said sleepily. Logan left and he rubbed some lotion on his bumps, nestled into his pillow and fell right to sleep.

When Carlos woke next, it was early evening. He wasn't sure if it was his incessant shivering or itching that woke him up, but both were extremely annoying. Carlos moaned and sat up, immediately getting a head rush from the action. He felt 10 times worse than he had before he fell asleep. He was now itchy all over. His back, his legs, his neck, his face, and even his toes and ears itched. There wasn't a spot on him that didn't have that screaming, tingling feeling. Not only that, but his stomach was feeling icky too, and his body ached. His nose was stuffy and his throat was hurting.

Carlos stumbled out of bed and into the kitchen, where James, Kendall, and Logan were all seated at the table, eating a dinner of frozen pizza. "Ughhhh," he groaned, gaining the boys' attention.

"Oh, Carlos," Logan said sympathetically, and Carlos shuffled over to the small boy and plopped down into his lap so he could bury his hot face into his chest.

"Umpfh!" Logan cried at the sudden weight, but didn't protest because Carlos seriously looked terrible. His hair was a sweaty mess and his cheeks were glowing red. His Scooby Doo pajama top was sticky and damp and his skin was marred with nasty red bumps. Logan rubbed Carlos' back gently, feeling the bumps underneath him. "Aw, buddy it's getting worse isn't it?"

"I feel so yucky," Carlos whimpered. He wanted to disappear off of the face of life right now. He had never felt this sick before. "What's wrong with me Logan?"

"You have the chickenpox, you're gonna feel bad for a little while 'Litos."

Carlos groaned at this, and Logan looked to James.

"James, a little help?"

"Yeah, no problem. Come here, Carlos." James lifted his little friend off of Logan's lap and cradled him to his chest. "Where do you want me to put him?"

"In his bed," Logan instructed, collecting anything he may need. James took Carlos to his room and Logan followed shortly after. Kendall and James sat on the edge of the bed so they could watch their doctor friend in action. Logan pushed back Carlos' bangs and rested his hand on his burning forehead.

"He's so hot," Logan said worriedly. Once again, he took Carlos' temperature, which rose to one hundred and three degrees.

"Is that bad?" Kendall asked worriedly. He was rubbing Carlos' shoulder soothingly. He had never seen his friend so miserable and was starting to get concerned.

"It's not good,' Logan said. "I'll be right back. Can you get him to take some ibuprofen for his pain and fever?" Logan handed Kendall a bottle of water and a couple of pills and left to retrieve a cold washcloth. Kendall placed the pills on Carlos' tongue and gently sat him upright.

"Take some water," Kendall urged softly. Carlos drank the water greedily. He was thirstier than he thought. Kendall let him drink until he had his fill. Logan came back with the washcloth and pressed it against his forehead.

"Are you ok Carlitos?" Logan asked, stroking the younger boy's sweaty forehead. Carlos shook his head and weakly scratched at his bumps, letting a tiny whine emit from his sore throat.

"No, don't scratch it," Logan said, grabbing Carlos' fingers and holding them tightly. "It will make it worse."

"But it itches," Carlos whined, trying to unravel his fingers from Logan's.

"Stop struggling and listen to me," Logan said. "The itching will only get worse if you don't leave it alone, trust me."

Carlos decided not to trust Logan. A couple minutes later, James was assisting Logan in holding the Latino's hands still, and poor, miserable Carlos was now in tears.

"Aw, jeez buddy, don't cry," James said. "Logan, we made him cry!" James felt absolutely appalled at himself when the smaller boy had burst into wails, tear drops flowing down his scarlet-splotched cheeks.

"I know!" Logan cried pitifully. He hugged Carlos to his chest and rocked him slowly to try to calm him down. "I know you don't feel good, buddy. We're just trying to help."

Carlos sobbed and slobbered but it was starting to quiet down. Kendall, who nobody noticed was missing until just now, suddenly appeared holding Mrs. Knight's oven mitts.

"Wh-what are those?" Carlos asked in a wavering voice. Kendall grinned and slipped the giant, soft mitts onto Carlos' hands.

"There, it will help the scratching," Kendall said.

"Kendall, you're a genius," Logan said, and the blonde smiled proudly.

"Will you put more lotion on me?" Carlos asked shyly, lying back down in his bed. He started squirming against the sheets and pillows to cure his itch.

"I gotta go milk a cow!" James blurted, getting up and running from the room.

"Mom just called," Kendall added, following James out of the room. Carlos looked at Logan with hopeful brown eyes and the junior doctor couldn't help but smile affectionately.

"Of course I will, Carlitos," Logan said, grabbing the lotion. He massaged it into his little brother's afflicted skin and gave him a clean shirt to wear.

"Am I ever gonna get better?" Carlos wondered. Logan smirked.

"It's only been a day, buddy. The chickenpox takes up to 2 weeks to get better."

Carlos' face fell at this. Un-spilled tears filled up in his eyes and he leaned against Logan's side, seeking comfort. 2 weeks would be a very long time. But, Carlos was Carlos, and while the average person would take 2 weeks to heal from the virus, after a few days and even more oatmeal baths, Carlos was good as new and swinging from the chandeliers again. Quite literally, too. But that's a whole other story…

**I need sleep. There goes ballet rehearsal in the morning. Curse the flu. I thought I was getting better and then Bam! It teases me. Anyway, sorry it was kind of short and for the ending… What was that? I always wanted to end a story like that, though. So I did. Yay. Keep in mind that it's after 4 am! Haha. And I had cough medication. Please drop me a review? I love em, a lot. I love you all, thanks so much for reading this!**


	21. freakierthanfrekas and bigtimerushbtr

**A/N I went to a chocolate factory and I'm eating the biggest Halloween peanut butter cup ever right now **** it's heavenly. Ok, shouting out to freakier than freaks who requested Kendall get sick and the boys and Katie take care of him! I also want to shout out to Big Time Rush BTR who wanted to see a sicky Kendall as well. Thanks guys!**

"_Just tell him,"_ Kendall thought to himself, urging his voice to say what his mind wanted him to. Why was this so hard? Logan was nestled quietly on the couch, television on mute and homework on his lap. The smaller boy hadn't yet noticed Kendall's presence.

The reason why Kendall was currently standing behind Logan wasn't because he was a creeper, but because he was feeling really, really sick and he needed some help. Usually, he just dealt with being ill and kept it to himself until somebody noticed, and they would usher him to bed while he whined and complained but was internally grateful. But this time was different. He had been feeling icky all day, but got through school, rehearsals, and dinner just fine. But after dinner, he was hit with a horrible stomachache. While the other guys went off to do their own evening activities, Kendall said he was just going to study in his room when really he spent the past hour curled into a tiny ball clutching his stomach, waiting for the pain to pass. But it was only getting much worse.

"Logan," Kendall said quickly and loudly. Logan jumped a little, dropping his book and making a scared squeak.

"Huh? Oh, hey Kendall. You ok?" Logan asked, looking up to see his best friend looking quite grey and holding onto the back of the orange couch for support. Sweat lined his brow and his eyes were cringed in pain.

"N-no," Kendall replied. "I threw up, dude."

Logan's eyes widened with surprise and got to his feet so he could lead Kendall to the front of the couch where he could lay down. "You're throwing up, Kendall?" How could he not have heard his friend getting sick? Was he that involved in his homework?

"Yeah," Kendall admitted, almost ashamedly. He curled up on the couch cushions and rested his hand on his churning belly. "It hurts, Logan."

"How long have you been feeling sick for?" Logan asked, feeling Kendall's forehead for fever. His friend was very warm to the touch.

"All day, but it wasn't this bad. I thought it would get better once I threw up but it's only hurting worse," Kendall said, his voice hoarse and weak.

"Aw jeez, Kendall. How many times do I have to tell you not to let it go all day? It only makes you sicker. Do you have a sore throat? I thought you sounded a little off during recording today."

"Yeah, just get me better before the guys and Katie get home, ok? I don't need them fussing over me. Oh man…"

"What is it?" Logan asked, thinking Kendall got a bad cramp or something.

"Mom will be home from bunko in a few hours!" Kendall wailed, fearing his mother's not-so-gentle touch. He loved her to death, but she was insane when he or any of the other kids were sick. He could kiss goodbye his entire weekend.

Logan chuckled. "Your mom can take care of you. That's not a bad thing. And sorry dude but it's going to take longer than a couple of hours for you to feel better, I think you have the flu."

"The flu? You have got to be kidding me, Logan. I can't be sick! I'll be fine in a bit I just gotta let this stomachache pass."

"Yeah, and for the fever to break and the sore throat to go away and oops, sounds like you have quite a cough buddy."

Kendall tried to cease coughing immediately, but his chest was so heavy. "Fine, I'm sick! Ugh, just… Take care of me, will you? Do your doctor magic hands thingy and fix me!"

Logan grinned, amused. "Ok, ok. I'll go get my stuff." Logan disappeared for a moment and came with a blanket, a water bottle, medicine, a bucket, and his thermometer. He took Kendall's temperature. "One hundred and one degrees even. Mama Knight freaks out over anything over one hundred, so I'll help you out and work on getting it under one hundred before she comes back. Here's some fever reducer…" Logan handed Kendall a couple pills and the bottle of water. "I'll be right back." Again, Logan left and returned with 2 wet washcloths, one for Kendall's forehead and one for his neck. "Alright, as long as we keep you cooled down I think your fever should lower a bit."

"Good," Kendall mumbled, on the brink of sleep. Logan gave his back a pat and sat down next to him. Kendall fell straight to sleep.

James, Carlos and Katie arrived home by 10 o' clock. They immediately knew something was wrong with Kendall when they saw him lying next to Logan on the couch, wrapped snugly in a fleece blanket and snoring loudly.

James eyed the thermometer warily. "Is he…"

"Sick?" Carlos finished for James, looking at Logan with wide eyes. The last time Kendall was sick was 2 years ago, when he licked the driveway on a dare.

"But Kendall is never sick," Katie said incredulously. She approached her older brother and looked at him closely. There was no denying he wasn't sick. His skin was pasty and sweat dampened his golden bangs. She put her palm against his forehead. Sure enough, he was running a fever. "Is he ok, Logan?"

"He's been sleeping for about 2 hours, so I guess he's ok right now. I've been trying to lower his fever before Mama Knight comes home," Logan explained.

"She gets home from Friday night bunko at 10:45 every night and he's burning up," Katie said. "Mom is going to freak."

"Burning up?" Logan wondered. Last he checked, Kendall's forehead was merely warm. Logan pushed back Kendall's bangs and put his hand on his forehead and cheeks. He was suddenly hot with a high fever. "Oh no," Logan muttered, sticking the thermometer under Kendall's tongue. Surprisingly, the blonde didn't even stir. He was in a deep sleep.

"One hundred and two point four," Logan read when the device beeped. "That doesn't make sense, I just gave him medicine and I have been keeping cool. He must be really sick. James, can you go wet these washcloths and put them in the freezer for me?"

"On it!" James said, grabbing the cloths and taking them to the kitchen. Kendall suddenly groaned in his sleep, curling up on himself even further. His face was twisted in pain and he shivered slightly. Logan quickly rubbed his back to try to soothe him back to sleep, but no such luck. Kendall green, fever-stricken eyes popped open. He groaned once again, watching the room spin around him. He saw 4 whirring Katie's and 3 spinning Logie's.

"Guys… Stop moving," he moaned, covering his hot face with his shaky hands.

"Um, we aren't moving," Katie said.

"Uh-oh, he has his puke face on," Carlos said from where he stood at the edge of the couch.

"He has a puke face?" Logan asked, wondering why Carlos noticed stuff like that. "Kendall, buddy do you think you're going to be sick?"

"No," Kendall said stubbornly. His stomach was twisting and flipping painfully but he wasn't going to puke again. It hurt too much the first time, and it was so gross. He wouldn't allow himself to throw up anymore in his entire life.

But of course, Kendall couldn't control it, no matter how much he willed his stomach to stay still. He buried his face in the couch, trying to concentrate on his breathing.

"You ok man?" James asked, coming back from the kitchen. Kendall looked absolutely terrible. He was shivering and sucking in deep breaths, and a moment later small hiccups could be heard from the boy.

"M'fine," Kendall mumbled. His stomach did an angry twist before it gave a harsh spasm, and he gagged dryly against the couch cushion.

"You're not fine, Kendall!" Logan scolded. He forced the taller boy into a sitting position and shoved a bucket underneath his chin just in time for him to vomit violently into it. His friends cringed at the sounds of vomit splashing off of the sides of the plastic as he retched. If Katie wasn't so worried for her brother, she would have left the apartment just then.

"That was gruesome," James noted when Kendall's torture ended, and Logan gave him a warning look as he promptly removed the bucket from under his nose.

"Awe, Kendall, you alright buddy?" Logan asked.

"Water?" Kendall asked weakly, and Logan set the bucket aside and gave him a long, greedy drink of the cold liquid.

"Katie, can you keep an eye on him while I go wash this out?" Logan asked. Katie nodded and sat next to her brother so she could rub his sweaty back comfortingly. Logan spent a few long minutes washing the soiled bucket and brought it back to the living room. Kendall was laying down again, this time with his head in Katie's lap. Carlos sat by his stocking feet and massaged them absent mindedly. James was next to Carlos, and all eyes were on the television, which was playing the Lion King.

"Oh cool, Kendall's favorite movie," Logan said with a smile.

"It's not my favorite movie!" Kendall defended, feeling a bit silly. Katie whacked his ear gently.

"Yes it is," she argued humorously. It was no secret that the Disney classic was his favorite since he was a little boy.

"Katie," Kendall groaned.

"What? It's a good movie-"

"No, I feel sick again," Kendall said, clutching his abused tummy. Katie exchanged a worried glance with Carlos and the pair helped him into a sitting position. Within seconds, the newly washed bucket was once again being filled, and Kendall's entire body shook with each violent heave. Carlos rubbed circles on his shoulder blades, trying to comfort him through it.

"What on earth?" A woman's voice cried, and Logan, James, Carlos and Katie stood up in alarm to find Mrs. Knight barge inside the room in worry. She flung her purse to the side and rushed to her poor son's aide. His retches broke her heart, and she could feel the heat radiating off of the teenager from where she sat next to him.

"Oh Kendall, baby!" She cooed. Kendall's retches ceased for a moment, and he looked at her with pleading eyes.

"Mom? When will this stop?" He asked, than buried his nose back into the bucket as another round of vomit struck him. It was starting to hurt, a lot. His stomach was so sore, his throat burned, and it was hard to breathe while regurgitating for 10 minutes straight.

"Hold on baby, it will be over soon," she said. Logan, who had left for a second to grab the freezing-cold washcloths James had made, handed Mrs. Knight the cloth and she pressed it gently upon Kendall's red and sweaty forehead. He closed his eyes at the comfort and when he finally finished, he leaned into her side, exhausted.

"It's ok honey, you're ok," Mrs. Knight said. "Logan, hold him for a minute, I'll go clean his bucket," she said. Logan nodded gratefully and took Mrs. Knight's spot on the couch, wrapping a strong arm around Kendall's quivering shoulders.

Mrs. Knight returned a few minutes later and fussed over Kendall for a bit, wrapping him in blankets and taking his temperature and wiping away his perspiration with the cold washcloths until he was finally asleep again.

"Ok kiddos, he seems alright for now," Mrs. Knight said. "You all can go to sleep if you want to, I know it's late. I'll keep an eye on him."

"No, I want to stay with him if it's ok Mama Knight," Logan said timidly. He never left his friends sides when they were sick, he just couldn't bring himself to do it. "I don't mind sleeping on the couch."

"Me either," Carlos said, making himself comfy next to Logan.

"I'll take the floor," Katie said, plopping down on the couch.

"Oh, I get the lazy boy," James said, settling into the giant armchair. Mrs. Knight smiled fondly.

"Ok, I'll be right back," she said. She rummaged her room and came back with a pile of blankets and pillows and tucked each one of her kids in, than laid a kiss on Kendall's temple. "You all take care of my boy. Good night."

"Night-night," James said, smiling when he received an affectionate kiss of his own. Mrs. Knight shut out the lights and retired to her room.

"Good night, big brother," Katie said. "Love you."

"Hope you feel better, buddy," Carlos said sweetly. The teenagers fell asleep quickly.

A few hours into the night, Kendall stirred and woke up from his slumber. He was curled on the couch and wrapped tightly in a pink comforter, which he vaguely remembered his mother doing to him. The room was dark, but Lion King was playing on repeat on the big screen. He kicked the comforter off of him, feeling hot. His chills were gone and while he was drenched in sweat, his skin was cool. He realized his fever had broken. He still felt sick, but not near as bad as it was. His stomach didn't even hurt anymore.

Kendall went to get up so he could spend the rest of the night in his room, but he accidently kicked a snoozing Carlos in the head. He winced, but Carlos didn't feel a thing. He briefly wondered why Carlos was down here, but then he saw that James, Logan and Katie were sleeping around him, too. At first, Kendall rolled his eyes, but than his features softened. His friends had stayed with him. They cared about him.

Kendall grinned and settled back down on the couch, feeling loved.

**A/N I could just write sick fics all day long! I love them! And I love requests! I'm always taking requests but if I haven't done yours yet, I promise I do all of my requests! Thanks for all of the great reviews, hoped you all liked this chap!**


	22. twisted illusions

**A/N Ok, so this is a request from twisted illusions, whom I love, and after much persuasion from her (jk, it didn't take very much) I have decided to post this. The reason why this came to be is probably what every fan dreams about but I experienced something very awkward with Logan when I met him and Courtney and I can't stop laughing about it. If you want the whole story, just tell me in a review of pm me. This is extremely immature, goofy, awkward and just plain weird and senseless. But anyone who knows me knows I'm a nut and could never resist posting this. Please just read and review and laugh and call me the freak that I am. And it is rated T. Wait, should it be M? Idk.**

Logan gulped. His heart was pounding and his throat was dry. He could feel the heat burning into his cheeks as he tried to look away from the woman in front of him but he just couldn't.

"So Logie, what's the answer?" The woman asked in a sultry voice that should be illegal. She leaned over him so his nose was right in her half-exposed bosom and looked him straight in the eyes. He could feel her hot breath on his face and he struggled to keep contact with her eyes and not avert them downwards. That would be bad, very bad. But Logan had less self-control than he thought and he found himself staring at her boobs. Every time she breathed they would brush his chin and he let out a shaky, nervous breath.

"Uh, uh…" He stammered, and the woman leaned away from Logan and his little school desk. He got a view of her full school-girl outfit. What teacher wore a tiny school uniform, pleated skirt so short her butt hung out of it? It reminded him of something out of a Britney Spears video. What kind of school was this?

Logan tore his eyes away from his hot new teacher and studied the sheet of math problems in front of him, but his mind drew blanks. He couldn't concentrate, not now.

"I-I don't know the answer Ms… Teacher…Lady."

Ms. Teacher Lady scowled at Logan, giving him a huge pout. "Oh, Logie, you have been so naughty. You haven't been studying, have you? You need to be punished. How about… A spanking?" The woman bent over, wiggled her hips, and picked up a long ruler.

"Yes please," Logan said, and he didn't believe the words that just came out of his mouth. The math teacher giggled and took Logan's hand and pulled him out of his seat, then spanked him hard with the ruler. Logan whimpered, but from pleasure, not pain. This happened several times until his shoulders started to shake oddly. He was so confused, but he decided to just try to enjoy the never ending spanking he was receiving. But slowly, the spanking started to fade and he heard Kendall saying his name over and over again.

'K-Kendall?" Logan asked, wondering why Kendall was watching him get a spanking, but then he opened his eyes and realized he wasn't in the school room and there was no hot teacher lady. Logan moaned in disappointment.

'Logie! Jeez, are you ok buddy?" Kendall asked, wiping the sweat off of Logan's forehead.

"What? I-I'm fine," Logan said, angry that Kendall woke him up. "Just go back to bed." Logan rolled over onto his stomach, hoping he could fall back to sleep and finish the dream, but he let out a yelp of pain when he put all of his weight on his front. He quickly rolled back over, startled. That hurt in a very weird place.

"Are you sure?" Kendall asked. "You were having a pretty bad nightmare, dude. You were moaning and sweating and whimpering."

_Oh no._ Had Logan really just had a… A sex dream? Well, it was more of just a sexy dream and a very sexy dream at that. His bottom half was tingling like crazy. He never felt this way before, and he had an urge to pull back his sheets and look at what was wrong with him. His pajama pants and boxer felt unusually tight, and it was uncomfortable. He wanted to rip his pants off but he couldn't do that in front of Kendall.

"Logan? What's wrong buddy?" Kendall touched Logan's glowing red cheek and gasped. "You're burning up, Logie!"

Logan cringed, thinking of the teacher. Must Kendall use that nickname? And come to think about it, he was very hot. Hot and uncomfortable and tingly. Was something wrong with him?

Logan gasped when Kendall suddenly lay next to him and wrapped him in a tight hug. The smaller boy stiffened and sucked in a sharp breath, feeling weird jolts of something he couldn't describe.

"K-Kendall," Logan said, voice trembling and high pitched.

"It's ok, buddy. I gotcha. What was your dream about?"

"N-nothing, can I just—EEP!" Logan let out a shrill squeak when Kendall shifted his weight and accidently brushed his thigh against a very sensitive area. Kendall froze in shock and stared at his best friend.

"L-Logie? Are you… Hard?" Kendall asked, inching away from his small friend, who looked like he was ready to burst into tears. But his chocolate brown eyes showed nothing but confusion.

"W-what?"

Oh Lord. Kendall forgot that his younger friend was still completely innocent and naïve. The poor boy probably had no idea what was happening to his body right now and unfortunately, he was the one who was going to have explain it since there were no fatherly figures in apartment 2J and his mother nearly fainted when she had to give Kendall "the talk."

"You didn't have a nightmare, did you Logan?"

Logan burst into a goofy, sideways grin and shook his head, remembering the hot teacher in his dream, which only resulted in his pants getting even tighter. His grin quickly faded at this, and he looked at Kendall with pleading eyes. "Um, Kendall?"

"Yeah?" Kendall said, mentally cringing. It was going to happen. It was inevitable. Logan would have questions, and he would have to answer them.

"What's wrong with me?" Logan's voice was incredibly small, and his hands covered his area protectively. His fingers ghosted over his rock hard member and he whimpered, scared and confused. Why was "it" suddenly so big and hard?

Kendall burst into a fit of laughter. "Logan, you're a teenaged boy nothing is wrong with you. You have an erection. It's perfectly normal!"

"Normal? But it hurts, Kendall!"

Kendall laughed even harder, and he was hyperventilating when Logan looked under the sheets and peeked under his pants. The smaller boy screamed and scrambled to his feet, which made Kendall scream when he saw the obvious bulge in his loose pants. Kendall covered the area with a pillow and continued laughing. All the ruckus made James and Carlos run into the room. Carlos held a yellow plastic tee-ball bat in one hand and his helmeted teddy bear in the other, one eye closed and the other half open and James looked like something from a horror movie with wide eyes and brown hair sticking up in all directions. He had a cuda can held out in front of him, threatening to blind an intruder with man-spray.

"What is going on?" Carlos asked when he saw Kendall rolling on the floor with laughter and Logan standing with a pillow over his hips, eyes wild with terror.

"I'm freaking out!" Logan cried.

"Are you ok?" James asked, noting how red Logan's cheeks were.

"Oh, he is more than ok!" Kendall said. And a new fit of giggles hit him.

"This is not funny!" Logan said. "I am tingling and my penis is hard!"

Suddenly, the room went silent, and Carlos, James and Kendall stared at Logan with their mouths gaped open. Logan blushed furiously, turning the brightest shade of scarlet possible. He didn't really just say that, did he? He was panicking and it just sort of blurted out and-

"Awe, Logan, don't cry!" Carlos said as small tears ran down Logan cheeks. "Think of kittens, ok?"

"How is that supposed to help me?" Logan whined, sniffling pathetically.

"Just do it!" Carlos said. Logan sighed and closed his eyes and pictured a cute little kitten which was hard when all he could see was the image of that teacher.

"Ok, now imagine the kitty running across the street, and it gets smashed by a car sending kitty guts everywhere!" Carlos instructed. "And Gustavo runs out naked and scoops the kitty up and eats it!"

"Ugh!" Logan cried out in disgust. "Carlos, who _are_ you?"

"Yeah, that crossed the line dude," James said with a shudder, but Carlos just grinned and removed the pillow for Logan's grasp.

"Voila! Stiffy, is gone," Carlos announced. Logan looked down at his pants in wonder. He was back to normal. The intense strain in his pants was fading.

"Dude! Thanks!" Logan said. Carlos shrugged.

"Enh, it's nothing. These things can literally pop up anywhere and you have to be prepared cause sometimes it's just plain inappropriate," Carlos said. "One time, this really hot girl at our concert approached me and it was like instant 'schwing'!" Carlos shoved his hips forward, imitating "Wayne's World", "And I had to think of naked Gustavo and dead cats so that I wouldn't take a picture with her with my, you know… _That_ sticking out."

"Too much info," James said. "But anyway, congrats, Loges! You just had your very first stiffy!"

"Yeah, maybe next time you can actually enjoy getting rid of it," Carlos said, raising his eyebrows suggestively. His words were met with groans of displeasure and several pillows thrown at his face.

**A/N The dream sequence was the most awkward thing I have ever written, ever! Idk what's wrong with me. *Hides head in shame* But this is just a joke, so if you were offended, don't be? Lol. Please review? Ps, I am so sorry I don't update this much I have been so busy I will do your request eventually, I promise! It just takes a while. Love you all!**


	23. cherries are lucky

**A/N I miss this story so much. Sorry for making you all wait so long. I hope you still wuv me This request is from Cherries are lucky. It's pretty stinking cool! Carlos and the boys go to a theme park, and it's just a bad experience for the poor boy. I hope you all enjoy it! Thanks, Cherries you rock!**

**Dino-Adventure Land is a figment of my imagination. I own nothing else.**

Carlos bounced up and down in his seat, excitement bubbling up in the pit of his tummy. He was almost there. He could see the giant roller coaster towering in the distance. He could almost taste the corndogs and hear the screams of the faint of heart, such as his best friend Logan.

"I'm so excited!" Carlos suddenly burst out. He wished Logan would drive faster, but his speed cautious friend would not do even one mile over the limit. He wasn't sure how much more waiting he could take, when he had already been waiting for weeks to go to this new theme park**.** It was called Dino-Adventure Land, and had the largest roller coaster on the west coast. As soon as the place opened for business, it was all Carlos could talk about and he begged and begged his friends to let him go. Finally, they had a day off and Logan surprised him with wristbands so they could spend all day at the park.

"We know, Carlos," Kendall said. "You've been jumping around all morning."

"I wanna ride the roller coaster! Logan, you have to ride the Dimorphodon Drop!" Carlos said. Logan's already pale face turned even chalkier at just the mere mention of riding that loopy, tunnel-y, mountainous death trap.

"No way, 'Litos," Logan said. "I'll ride the carousel with you, how does that sound?"

Carlos frowned. He loved picking out which pretty horse to ride and all the lights and calliope music that went with it, but this time he wanted to try something different and not so wimpy. He had never been on a roller coaster before, and the giant metal structure was just begging him to ride it.

"Fine, what about you James? Will you ride the roller coaster with me?" Carlos asked, folding his pudgy fingers up and tucking them under his chin. He then blinked his eyelashes at James, pushing out his lower lip. It was the ultimate puppy dog look. But James was too busy looking into his handheld mirror to notice.

"No way, dude. I refuse to have windblown hair," James said. Carlos groaned and rolled his eyes. He _really _wanted to ride this roller coaster!

"Kendall, will you ride it with me?" Carlos asked, pouting even more if that was even possible. Kendall grinned.

"Sure, I will ride it with you buddy," the blonde boy said fondly. Carlos squeaked and pumped his fist into the air.

"Let's do this thing!" Carlos cried. "Super fun day of fun, here we come!"

"You said 'fun' twice," Kendall said. Carlos grinned.

"You bet I did!" Carlos said, mimicking his best friend's phrase.

"We're here!" Logan announced, pulling into the parking lot.

"Yay!" Carlos yelled.

"Whoa, Carlos! Wait 'til I park the car first you idiot!" Logan cried. Carlos tore his seatbelt and hopped out of the BTRMobile before Logan even found a parking spot. He was already halfway across the lot in a matter of a few seconds.

"Wow, he's worse than James at a Cuda sale," Kendall commented. James scowled and Logan chuckled.

After Logan meticulously parked the cherry red vehicle, they joined a bouncing Carlos in line to get into the park.

"Carlos, settle down," Logan said. "People are staring."

"I know, I'm just so excited!" Carlos said for the umpteenth time, shoving his helmet on his head. It was finally their turn to go through the turnstiles, and they showed the workers their wristbands. Finally, they were inside of the park, surrounded my mechanical, roaring dinosaurs of all shapes, sizes and colors. Some rides were cute and slow with cuddly looking dinosaurs and other rides were intense and fast. There was even a huge fake volcano spewing "lava."

"Wow, it's like Jurassic Park in here!" Carlos exclaimed, completely overwhelmed by the sights around him.

"Yeah, I gotta admit, it's pretty cool," Logan said. "Ok Carlos, you get to choose the first ride!"

"Dimorphodon Drop!"

"No, dude!" Logan said. "You should ride something slow first and work your way up to the big, scary rides, or else you might get sick. Besides, the roller coaster is clear across the other side of the park."

Carlos puffed his cheeks out and sighed. "Fine. Let's do… The Bucking Brontosaurus!" The Latino pointed to a rather rough looking ride that quite literally bucked you all over the place. Logan groaned, but followed his overly enthusiastic friend to the ride. After standing in line for 30 minutes and being bucked around for 5 minutes, they went on the Spinning Stegosaurus. After that ride, none of the boys could stand up straight so they had stumble drunkenly to a picnic and rest for a moment.

"That was insane," Kendall moaned, holding his head in his hands.

"I know! Oooh, my equilibrium," Logan groaned.

"This is not the time for your math talk," James said, blinking furiously to try to regain his vision. Logan rolled his eyes.

"James, sometimes you just shouldn't speak," Logan said incredulously.

"What's next?" Carlos asked, jumping to his feet. He was always quickest to recover.

"I say I get to pick this time!" Logan said, eyes lighting up as he scanned the park for a fun, easy-going ride. All 3 boys erupted into annoyed groans. Logan always picked the girly rides.

"Ooh! The Jolly Jobaria's look like fun!" Logan said with a huge, childlike grin stretched upon his small face.

"Um, really Logan?" Kendall asked, arching a dark eyebrow. Logan all but stomped his foot and pouted.

"We never get to go on the rides I want to go on!"

"Relax, I will go on your pansy ride with you," Carlos said.

"And I am going to go flirt with that cute girl over there," Kendall said, eyes following a cute blonde walking by a food stand. "See ya!" Kendall left to go flirt with the girl and get out of being seen on the kiddie ride.

"Hey! I saw her first!" James shrieked, powerwalking after Kendall.

"Well, looks like it's just us. We'll catch up with them later," Logan said, patting Carlos on the shoulder. They stood in line, which embarrassingly enough was mostly little kids, and got inside a little cart shaped like a Jobaria, some dinosaur that Carlos never heard of before.

"Whee!" Logan squealed as he "drove" the Jobaria down a curvy track surrounded by more mechanical dinosaur and lots of trees and fake, squawking birds. Carlos shrugged and joined in on the fun, pretending they were on a great dinosaur safari.

After the Jolly Jobaria, they rode on the Flying Febrosaurus and Twisty Triceratops together. After those rides, Carlos was starting to get anxious to ride the roller coaster. They had been at the park for nearly 3 hours and he was afraid if he waited any longer they wouldn't be able to ride it at all.

"Logan, can we please go on the roller coaster now?" Carlos pleaded with his mouth full of green, dinosaur shaped cotton candy. Logan scrunched his face up, looking a bit uneasy.

"I don't think so, 'Los. Maybe if Kendall ever shows back up."

"But he's off hitting on random girls with James and I really want to go on the roller coaster!" Carlos whined. Logan shrugged. He hated denying his young friend anything, but there was no way he would ever go on that giant coaster of death.

"Sorry, Buddy. You might have to wait until next time. Let's just find another ride to go on and head back home, I have a ton of homework to do."

Carlos' lower lip trembled. He may have been overreacting just a smidge, but it felt like Logan had slapped him in the face. The roller coaster was what he had been looking forward too since they started building the thing.

"But Logie," Carlos whined.

"Carlos, no way am I going on that ride and no way are you going by yourself. Do you know how scary it is? Let's just stick to the smaller rides for now. Here, look at that one over there! Come on, Carlos." Logan walked away without a second look back, just assuming that his younger brother was following him.

Carlos stayed glued in place, arms folded over his chest defiantly. The Latino was not used to not getting his way. Usually, everyone gave into his every want and desire. And right now, he _really _wanted to go on the roller coaster. With a huff, Carlos turned on his heel and headed the opposite direction of Logan. He was going on that ride whether Logan liked it or not.

For 30 minutes Carlos was fairly certain he was going to go on the roller coaster. But as he stood in line with the shadow of the giant ride looming over him, he started to lose his courage. The Dimorphodon Drop didn't look half as fun as the Jolly Jobaria anymore. Carlos sighed. Maybe Logan was right. It was too big and fast of a ride for him to handle. After a couple minutes of debating it, Carlos decided to head back to Logan.

But it didn't take long for him to realize that he had no idea where Logan was anymore. His stomach dropped as his eyes darted the huge area nervously. He was surrounded by bustling people and screaming kids and growling dinosaurs. Nothing looked familiar.

Carlos was lost.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"_What do you mean you lost Carlos?" _Kendall cried over the phone, his gangly legs moving as fast as they could to the location Logan said he was waiting for him at.

"I don't know, Kendall! He's always trailing behind me like a lost puppy or something, I just assumed he was there and then I turned around and he was gone and I'm freaking out!"

"Calm down, we'll find him eventually," Kendall said, trying to calm his own racing heart. He knew that Carlos was probably scared out of his mind by now.

A few minutes later, James and Kendall were both reunited with Logan and they searched the grounds, yelling Carlos' name. Kendall made a mental note to implant a tracking chip in the little Latino, since he was apparently incapable of remembering to bring his cellphone everywhere.

"Guys, what are we going to do?" Logan said nervously. They had checked all over the theme park. He wasn't even at the roller coaster, which they were sure he would be at. Kendall scrubbed at his face with his hands, feeling sick with stress and worry.

"I don't know, Logan. He could be anywhere."

James suddenly gasped. "What if somebody stole him?"

"Nobody stole him," Logan said tiredly. "He's a 17 year old dude."

"Yeah but he's still a kid, which means he could be kidnapped!" James said seriously. Logan groaned.

"Dude! Remember when I said sometimes you just shouldn't speak?"

"Yes…"

"This is one of those times. Shut it. Kendall, help me because I am about 5 minutes from fainting!"

"No, don't faint Logan!" Kendall said. "He'll show up sometime. He's probably off eating Dino-Dogs or something."

Logan whined pitifully and sat on a bench. He really screwed up this time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Carlos cowered at a picnic bench, whimpering to himself. He was miserable and scared and alone, and now it was dark outside. All the lights that flashed at him dizzyingly just made everything even more eerie. Why couldn't he just remember to bring his cellphone for once?

"Where are you, guys?" Carlos whispered, shuffling his feet absentmindedly. He just wanted his friends with him. Suddenly this place wasn't so fun anymore.

"Carlos!" A familiar voice rang in his ears. Carlos cringed and buried his face in his hands.

"Oh no! Now I'm hearing their voices!" The disillusioned teen wailed.

"What are you talking about, we're right behind you!" Kendall exclaimed. Carlos jumped to his feet and turned around.

"Guys! I never thought I would see you again! I thought you left me forever and I would be forced to live among the dinosaurs!" Carlos cried as his friends flung themselves into his arms, hugging him tightly. Logan laughed at his innocent friend with relief.

"Oh, Carlos I am so glad we found you! I'm so sorry I lost you. I swear, anything you want to do, we can do it!" Logan said, trying to redeem himself.

"Yeah, we can go on the Dimorphodon Drop now," Kendall said. Carlos tapped his chin thoughtfully. He did want to just go home a few minutes ago, but there were still a bunch of cool rides he wanted to go on and he didn't know when the next time he would have a chance to come here would be.

"Ok!" Carlos said, already dragging Kendall by the arm towards the roller coaster. He wasn't half as scared now that he had his older and protective friend standing in line with him.

"Oh, there they go!" Logan said with a chuckle from where he stood beside James. The 2 boys waved to their friends as the cart they sat in took off down the track. All Logan could see were a blur of Blonde hair and a helmeted head going up and down the huge drops. He could even hear their screams of joy and adrenaline. But then, their cart seemed to slow down a little bit and a loud creaking sound could be heard.

'Um, what was that?" James asked, concerned.

"Oh no," Logan breathed. Right as Kendall and Carlos hit the biggest loop, the cart they were in came to a complete standstill. Kendall and Carlos were suspended upside down on a roller coaster.

"Whoa, what just happened? Why aren't they moving? James asked, his voice frantic with worry. He could hear Carlos and Kendall's frightened yells from where he stood.

"I don't know," Logan said, taking off in a run towards the carnies that worked the controls. "Hey, what happened? My friends are stuck upside down!"

"The chain got jammed," the carnie said, messing with the control box.

"Well, you need to get them down!" Logan exclaimed. "Carlos scares easily and he probably freaking out right now!"

"Relax, I just sent someone up there to fix it, they should be down in about 20 minutes."

"20 minutes?" Logan cried. "But the blood could rush to their heads and they could have an aneurysm within that time frame! What if they can't get them down? Is this ride even safe at all? I want them off now!"

"Loges, ssh," James said softly, pulling his smaller friend away from the control box. "I'm sure Kendall and Carlos are perfectly fine up there!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"_I'm freaking out!"_ Carlos wailed, gripping his shoulder restraints with all of his strength. This was not fun! His head felt heavy and dizzy as all the blood in his body seemed to slowly creep into his brain. He felt his insides float up to his chest, and his shoulders were screaming in pain. His small body was at least 3 inches off of the seat, so all of his weight rested on his shoulders which were crammed against the restraints.

Kendall didn't look like he was having much fun, either. His face was deathly pale and his eyes were squeezed shut tightly. His lips were quickly moving together and if Carlos listened carefully he could hear his taller friend singing to himself, trying to pretend he was on stage at a concert and not stuck 200 feet up in the air upside down in a tiny roller coaster car. He suddenly had a horrible image of the cart coming off of its tracks and them tumbling to a bloody demise below.

"Ahhhh!" Kendall screamed in terror, cursing his over-active imagination.

"Kendall, I want to come down now," Carlos cried, tears pooling at the corners of his terrified eyes and falling to the concrete way, way, way below him.

"Don't worry kids, we'll have you down in just a few minutes," a voice yelled from behind them. The boys were too scared to move a muscle to crane their necks and look at who was speaking.

"Are you here to help us?" Carlos asked in a shaky voice.

"Yep, just gotta make a few adjustments and you will be right down!" The mechanic said optimistically. Luckily, about 10 minutes later, Kendall and Carlos were zooming down a couple more twisty hills and they were finally on solid ground again.

"Never. Again!" Kendall said, wobbly making his way to James and Logan. He could barely see where he was going, his vision was so blurry. He felt as if he was still upside down.

Logan reached out a hand to steady Kendall, and James put a strong arm around Carlos' shaking figure.

"Dudes, are you ok?" James asked, studying Carlos' pale expression for a moment.

"Yeah, that was just kind of scary," Kendall squeaked. Logan led them to a picnic table and gave them a quick examination. They seemed to be just fine though, just a little shaken up.

"Hey logie?" Carlos asked after a few minutes of talking and trying to joke about what just happened.

"Yeah, 'Litos?"

"Can I have that Dino-Dog now?" Carlos asked sweetly.

Logan smiled warmly. "Yeah, I'll go get us some food, I'll be right back." Logan disappeared to go grab some concessions for the boys to snack on. Kendall left with him to help him carry, and they both came back with their arms full of nachos, sodas, and a Dino-Dog for Carlos which was nothing more than a corndog shaped like a T-Rex.

Carlos smacked his lips hungrily and dove into his corndog. The boys were starving from all the excitement of the theme park. Carlos was especially exhausted. He felt emotionally drained from the events of the crazy day, but he wasn't done doing everything he wanted to do and even though he really wanted to go home and curl up in bed, he was still determined to finish his "Super Fun Day of Fun" the right way.

"Let's go play some games!" Carlos said, jumping to his feet after finishing his corndog, throwing the wrapper and stick in the trash. He took a long sip of his soda because the Dino-Dog kind of tasted strange and threw that in the trash as well.

"Don't you want to get home?" Logan asked, surprised. He was fully expecting Carlos to want to go home and curl up with a movie on the couch and go to sleep.

"Nope! I want to finish my Super Fun Day of Fun. This is our first day off in like, ever, and I don't want to ruin it for you guys," Carlos said. "And I really, really want to win a blow-up dinosaur!"

Logan laughed. "Ok, let's go play some games than!"

The boys played their fair share of dino-toss, dino-smack, and dino-shoot-out for the next hour. They each carried 2 of their own blow-up and stuffed dinosaurs. To say they were Dinosaur'd-out would be an understatement.

"Let's ride one more ride!" Carlos said, spotting a cool ride ahead of them as they walked down the midway.

"Ok, just one more," Logan said. "And then we are going home, the park is closing soon and I am dead on my feet."

"Yay!" Carlos cheered, ignoring the funky feeling in his tummy. They waited in line again (they were so sick of lines by now), dropped their prizes by the carnies, and entered the Rocking Rapetosaurus, cheering with enthusiasm. They were all excited about this one, it kind of reminded them of those really fun rides called the "Pharaoh's Curse" that they would see at carnivals sometimes.

The Rapetosaurus rocked them back and forth, higher and higher and the boys screamed with delight. Carlos had a blast at first, but with each swoop of the ride, his stomach would climb closer and closer to his throat. He felt achy and icky and sweaty all of a sudden, and he was grateful when the ride finally slowed to a stop. He hopped out of his seat like it was the plague, grabbed his dinosaurs, and hurried down the midway towards the exit.

'I'm ready to go home now," the Latino announced in a shaky voice. Logan and Kendall exchanged a concerned glance at the sudden change in their younger friend's mood.

"Carlitos, are you alright?" James asked, speeding after his little buddy.

"I'm ok," Carlos said, feeling a bit weak in the knees. His stomach tossed and turned angrily. They finally arrived to the BTRMobile and he crawled into the backseat, pressing his suddenly blazing forehead to the cold glass. He wanted to go home. He didn't even think he would last on the long ride back to the apartment. Why did he suddnely feel like he was dying?

"Carlos, talk to me buddy. What's the matter?" Logan asked, starting the ignition and driving out of the parking lot.

"My tummy hurts," Carlos whimpered, curling his arms around his middle.

"Awe, buddy," James said, rubbing the Latino's back soothingly. Carlos sniffed and leaned into James' side, thankful for the comforting contact.

"That ride wasn't even that scary," Kendall commented, confused.

"It's probably because he didn't wait long enough between eating and going on that ride," Logan said, though it didn't quite add up. Carlos had a pretty tough stomach when it came to food.

"Well that corndog was not worth this tummyache," Carlos said. "It tasted funny anyway."

"Wait, your corndog tasted funny?" Logan asked. Carlos moaned and nodded. "Why did you eat it if tasted weird, Carlos?"

"I was hungry!" Carlos defended. Logan sighed exasperatedly.

"James, feel his head. Is he hot?" The JR. Doctor asked. James pressed the back of his hand to Carlos forehead and felt his chest tighten in worry.

"He's burning up, Loges."

"Ugh, he has food poisoning!" Logan exclaimed. "He ate a bad corndog. Hold on, bro. I'll get you home."

Carlos didn't make it home before he was spewing his guts out on the side of the road. He coughed and sputtered and gagged before wiping his mouth with his shirt sleeve and looking up helplessly at James, who was at his side the entire time rubbing his back.

"Are you ok, Carlos?" James asked. He swiped a hand across Carlos' sweaty forehead, which felt slightly cooler now but not much.

"I think I'm done," Carlos croaked. He let James help him into the car and fell asleep immediately with his head on the taller boys shoulder. When they arrived at the Palmwoods, James carried the small boy into the apartment and laid him down gently in his bed.

"Poor little guy," Kendall cooed. He seriously felt bad for Carlos. He had a pretty emotional wracking day. James frowned, wiping a spare tear that escaped from the Latino's eye and slowly rolled down his flushed cheek.

"I think he's just really overwhelmed right now," Logan said when James looked at him worriedly. "He'll be ok."

"So much for the Super Fun Day of Fun he'd been dreaming about," Kendall said.

"It was still fun," Carlos muttered sleepily. He was only half asleep and he could hear their soft, comforting voices speaking about him. "'Cause I was with you guys."

Logan smiled and shook his head. "Well, next time I say our Super Fun Day of Fun should be spent at fun-burger and playing dome hockey from now on. Night, Carlos."

Carlos just snored.

**A/N Lol, oh endings how you fail me so. This was so much fun to write though! A few fun facts:**

**I have actually been stuck upside down on a ride before, called the Kamikaze! My experience was similar to Carlos' and Kendall's. Well, it was exactly like Carlos and Kendall's! Scary.**

**Carlos Pena has actually been stuck on a roller coaster, but not upside down.**

**I could so picture Logan having a field day on that kiddie ride, couldn't you?**

**I love dinosaurs. Obviously.**

**Carlos was going to lose his helmet on the roller coaster and cry buckets, and then I was going to have James sneak around and retrieve it for him, but this was getting way too long so I cut the idea out.**

**I hoped you all liked this! Please drop me a review, I would love to hear from you! Thanks!**


	24. jenizzle

**A/N It's been a long week. **

**This is a request from jenizzle! She wanted to see Logan get appendicitis. This should be fundiddles! Thanks everyone for your reviews and all the happy stuff, love you guys! Please read the author note at the end it is kinda important instead of my usual useless babble of dorkness. Enjoy! This will be Thanksgiving themed, just 'cause I feel like it. Gobblegobble.**

Logan practically ran out of Rocque Records, unable to contain his excitement. It was finally Thanksgiving break, meaning he would be away from that hellhole boy-band-boot-camp of a studio and, most importantly, Satan himself (Gustavo Rocque) for 4 whole days.

"Ahhh, sweet freedom!" Carlos cried, kneeling on the parking lot pavement of Rocque Records and quite literally kissing the ground, making loud sucking and smooching sounds as he did so.

"Ugh, gross dude!" Kendall groaned.

"Too far," James commented, wrinkling his nose. The 2 taller boys heaved Carlos off the ground and placed him on his feet.

"What should we do first?" Logan asked excitedly. He was overwhelmed by all of the opportunities that this 4 day break presented him. He could go to the Planetarium, or try to get back with Camille, or create a super-hybrid cow-milking machine for his next science project, or-

"Roller hockey!" Kendall yelled with great enthusiasm. His 3 friends erupted into cheers and hollers.

Roller Hockey it was than!

After running into the apartment to get their gear, the 4 band mates were rolling around the Palmwoods Parking lot, shooting pucks at each other and unsuspecting passerby (on accident, of course.)

"Hey Loges, pass the puck to me!" Carlos yelled, while trying to block James' shot. The tall brunette saw Logan try to pass the puck to his teammate and chose to intercept the move by lightly checking the smaller boy to the ground.

Logan saw James coming at him and braced himself for impact, even though he knew James never used his full strength on his friends to avoid hurting them any. But this time, when Logan fell to the hard gray asphalt, pain erupted through his side and stomach, leaving him a breathless, writhing heap for several agonizing moments. He couldn't even scream the pain was so intense. He could hear his friends worried and panicked voices ring sharply in his ears and he could feel their comforting hands all over his body, only making the pain worse when they were trying to help him.

Slowly, the pain ebbed away, leaving his entire system slightly shocked. A sick feeling in the pit of his stomach replaced the blinding pain, and he looked up at his friends with wet, brown eyes.

"Owie," he squeaked, hoping the ordeal was truly over.

"What the heck was that?" Kendall asked, his grip on Logan's hand tightening. His green eyes shone with panic and confusion. Logan groaned and tried to sit up. Carlos helped him upright, and Kendall dropped Logan's hand when he realized he was squeezing a bit too hard.

"I don't know, I guess James just hit a nerve or something," Logan said shakily.

James looked like he was going to burst into tears and he quickly went on an apologetic rampage.

"Logan, I am so sorry I didn't even realize I hit you so hard, are you hurt? What's wrong?"

"Relax, I think I'm ok," Logan said, wrapping an arm around his icky-feeling middle.

"Are you sure? You look really pale," Carlos pointed out.

"I'm sure," Logan said, though he really wasn't.

"Well what hurts?" James asked. "Did you fall on your arm, or your head?"

"No, neither. It's fine guys, really. It was probably nothing. Can we just go home now?"

"But we've only been playing for 20 minutes," Carlos whined, but Kendall and James shot Carlos a look.

'Yeah man, let's go inside. I bet mom will have dinner ready for us," Kendall said, He gingerly helped Logan get to his feet and they slowly made their way back to the apartment. The rest of the guys immediately started playing dome hockey, waiting for Mrs. Knight to finish cooking up a pot of spaghetti, but Logan decided to opt out of the game this time.

"Hey Mrs. Knight, I'm really tired," Logan said, walking up to his surrogate mother's side. "Can you wake me up for dinner? I'm going to go lie down for a bit."

"Sure sweetie," Mrs. Knight said. She looked at the small boy beside her and frowned, noticing he was looking a bit pale and sweaty. "Are you feeling ok?"

"Yeah Gustavo just made us work really hard today. See you in a bit Mama K."

"Ok honey, sleep well," Mrs. Knight said. Her motherly instincts were telling her something was wrong with the little genius and to let him sleep it off tonight. She would check on him in the morning.

About an hour passed and Carlos, James and Kendall were all seated around the kitchen table. Katie had flown out to Minnesota that morning to spend Thanksgiving with her grandparents, and Logan hadn't been seen since they came in from the hockey game.

"Hey, where's Logan at?" Kendall asked before dinner was barely even served.

"He's taking a nap, he said he was tired," Mrs. Knight said, not missing the way Kendall's eyes clouded with worry.

"Really?" Her son asked, taking a bite of his saucy noodles.

"Is there something I should know?" Mrs. Knight asked, looking each of her boys straight in the eye.

"I sort of checked him during hockey today, he fell down and he looked like he was in so much pain, Mrs. Knight. He even started to cry," James said guiltily. "I didn't mean to make him cry."

"I know you didn't, it's ok," Mrs. Knight assured James. "I'm going to go make sure he's feeling alright." The motherly figure dropped her napkin on the table and quietly crept into Logan's bedroom. The brunette was fast asleep, tucked under 3 blankets. His white skin was a bit ashen with a flush of color along his cheekbones. Mrs. Knight pressed her palm against his forehead and realized he was running a slight temperature.

"Is he ok Mama Knight?" James whispered from behind her. He was too anxious to patiently await the verdict with his friends in the kitchen.

"I don't know, he's feverish," Mrs. Knight whispered. "Can you go fetch me the thermometer?"

James nodded and rummaged around the bathroom until he found the small device and returned to Logan's room. "Can I take his temperature?" He asked. For some reason, he felt responsible for Logan's illness and he wanted to take care of him.

"Yeah, just gently slip it under his tongue," Mrs. Knight said. "Kind of hold it there because he can't."

"Ok," James muttered, doing as told. He slipped the tip of the thermometer into Logan slightly parted mouth and underneath his tongue, than held it steady for a moment. Logan's eyes fluttered opened and he moaned.

"Ssh, it's ok, we are taking your temperature. Just relax," Mrs. Knight cooed, stroking Logan's hair back. The sick boy nodded and let Mrs. Knight and James fuss over him. The thermometer beeped and James read off the numbers.

'It's one-hundred point three," James said. "Is that bad?"

"It's still low-grade, but we need to keep an eye on it," Mrs. Knight said. "I'll go get some Tylenol."

Mrs. Knight left and James sat next to Logan's legs.

"Are you ok Logie?" James asked.

"Mmhmm," Logan moaned sleepily.

"Are you feeling sick?"

"A little," Logan said, rubbing his belly. His middle was still feeling pretty icky but most of all he was just tired.

"Is your stomach bothering you?" James asked, determined to decipher what was hurting his best friend.

"Yeah," Logan said in a small voice. Mrs. Knight came into the room and James turned to her.

"Logan says his stomach hurts Mama Knight."

Mrs. Knight frowned and looked at Logan. "Is that true, honey?"

"James," Logan whined, annoyed that his friend told on him, even though it wasn't really a big deal.

"Well, take these Tylenols for your fever and we'll let you get some rest. I hope you're not coming down with something," Mrs. Knight said. Logan took his medicine and cuddled under his covers, desperate for sleep.

"Good night honey, feel better," Mrs. Knight said, kissing Logan's forehead sweetly and leaving.

James grinned and leaned over Logan, putting on his best, girly voice. "'Good night, honey,'" He mocked, giving Logan's warm forehead a peck. Logan swatted him away, but chuckled.

"Good night James," Logan said, amused by his goofy friend. James always had a way of making him feel better.

"I really do hope you feel better dude," James said in his normal voice. He gave Logan's back a pat, turned off the light, and left the bedroom.

Logan woke up in the middle of the night from the same pain in his side that had crippled him earlier that evening. He almost cried out, but he quickly remembered that Kendall was sleeping in the bed next to him. He pressed his hands to his stomach and whimpered, praying for the pain to pass. Like the first time, the pain did leave, but this time it left behind the worst nausea he had ever experienced in his short life.

Logan curled into a tight ball, sweat dripping into his eyes. He felt as if he was on fire and he couldn't stop shivering violently. He knew full well he had a high fever. He also knew he should wake Kendall and just ask for help, but he didn't want to worry his friends. He told himself that it would be over soon, and he probably ate something bad. He opted to ignore the doctor alarm bells that rang in his head and focused on whispering the lyrics to a new song they had been learning all week to try and calm down.

Finally, the nausea got too strong for him to handle, and he rolled out of bed and stumbled dizzily to the bathroom, his stomach boiling and churning and twisting painfully. He lowered himself to the cold tile floor and stared at the toilet. Tears immediately pricked at his eyes. He didn't want to throw up. He hated the whole process.

Logan almost decided that he absolutely would _not _throw up, and that he would just lie down and it would go away. But as soon as he tried to hoist himself up off the floor, vomit rose to his throat and spilled out of him uncontrollably. He coughed and gagged and fell back to his knees. Pain shot up his knees but it was nothing compared to the horrific abuse his stomach was suffering at the moment.

Finally, the gags ceased and Logan slumped to the floor in exhaustion. He flushed the toiled and tried to block away the wretched smell that he had produced. After several minutes of trying to control his breathing, he stood up on wobbly knees and stumbled to the hallway.

He had thought he was safe from his friends or Mama Knight finding him in his ill state, but Kendall stood in his plaid pajamas, waiting for Logan to emerge from the bathroom.

"K-Kendall?" Logan moaned when he saw his best friend standing at the doorway. His blonde hair was tousled and wild, sticking up in all different directions. His emerald eyes were wide with trepidation as he assessed Logan's health.

"Logie, did you just throw up?" Kendall asked softly. Logan nodded and blushed, feeling awkward. It had been years since he had thrown up and he didn't really know how to react.

"Do you want me to get mom?"

"No, I want to lie down," Logan whimpered, feeling weaker by the minute.

"Ok, come on buddy," Kendall said, putting an arm around Logan's quaking shoulders and leading him back to his warm bed. The blonde tucked his younger friend in and felt his forehead for temperature.

"Logie you're burning up," Kendall hissed, recoiling his hand back. "Here, take some more Tylenol." He handed Logan a couple more pills and the glass of left over water from earlier. Logan swallowed the pills and drank the water greedily, then laid his head on his pillow and shut his eyes.

Kendall gulped nervously, watching his ill friend trying to get comfortable. He seemed really sick and he didn't know what to do. He waited until he heard snores coming from the brunette before lying down and falling back to sleep.

The next morning Logan woke up feeling much better than last night. His stomach no longer hurt and his fever seemed to have broken. The only indicator that he had been sick was that his sheets were soaked with his own sweat.

Logan rolled out of bed and glanced at the clock. He was startled to find that it was 2:00 in the afternoon. He quickly showered and dressed, than padded to the kitchen in his doggy-slippered feet.

"Hey, you're wearing the slippers I got you for your birthday," Carlos said, pointing at Logan's feet. Logan grinned.

"Yep, they're quite cozy. Thanks, 'Los." Logan ruffled the Latino's hair affectionately.

"Logan, how are you feeling baby?" Mrs. Knight asked. "Kendall told me you got sick this morning."

Logan rolled his eyes. "I feel fine, actually. I must have just eaten something rotten."

"I'll let my little friend be the judge of that," Mrs. Knight said, unexpectedly shoving a thermometer under his tongue. He scowled and waited for it to beep.

Mrs. Knight read the numbers, looking surprised and then relieved.

"Well, your fever's gone. Go sit down on the couch and I'll make you some soup, ok?"

"Ok, thanks Mama Knight!" Logan said. He nestled on the couch between Kendall and James, who were watching The Incredible Hulk. Carlos was sprawled out across the floor, eating 3 pieces of licorice at once.

"I don't want Logan doing anything active today," Mrs. Knight announced, giving Logan a small bowl of soup. "Try to eat what you can, honey, and dinner will be ready for the rest of you in a couple of hours.

Logan's optimistic mood instantly faltered when he remembered what day it was and why it smelled so delicious in the apartment. Today was Thanksgiving. He was sick on Thanksgiving. That was when the boys all slept in until noon, ate pumpkin pancakes, and played flag football outside until dinnertime, when they would all feast until their jeans popped open. And then they would sleep, and eat some more. It was their gross, manly tradition, and he had ruined it for them.

"Guys, I completely forgot it's Thanksgiving today," Logan said, stirring his soup sadly. James rubbed his back and offered him a smile.

"It's ok, Loges. We'll have just as much fun watching movies," James said. "I'm too tired to play football anyway, right guys?"

"Yep!" Kendall agreed, catching James discreetly nodding at him. Carlos, however, did not get the hint.

"I want to play flag- Ow!" Carlos wailed, feeling James' stocking feet jab his ribs in warning. "I mean, yep, I'm tired!" The Latino quickly changed his choice of words, followed by a huge yawn.

"See? We are perfectly happy watching movies," James said, giving Logan's head a pat.

For the rest of the afternoon, the boys joked around and watched action movies. Carlos and Kendall threw a Nerf football back and forth, but when they accidently smacked Logan in the head with it, they freaked out and stopped playing. Logan sighed. He really did not care for being babied so much.

Mrs. Knight announced dinner at around 6 0' clock, and Logan decided to join them at the festive looking table. Carlos tried to dig in right away, but Mrs. Knight grabbed his wrist.

"Not yet Carlos, you have to tell us what you're thankful for," Mrs. Knight said.

"Oh!" Carlos said. He giggled and pulled his hand back. "That's easy. Corndogs!"

"Carlos…" Mrs. Knight groaned.

"I mean, I am thankful that I get to make awesome music with my awesome friends and hang out by the pool with them," Carlos said.

"Good enough," Mrs. Knight said. "Ok, Kendall, what are you thankful for honey?"

"I am thankful for my best friends who are like my brothers," Kendall said fondly, smiling at his friends. "I am thankful for a mom who knows how to fix everything and supports me in all of my dreams, because that is just incredible, and I'm thankful for Katie and our health, even though Logan got sick last night."

"Yeah but I'm better now," Logan assured him. The rest of the boys said their thanks and Mrs. Knight finished it off, and then they all commenced to stuffing their faces.

Logan only got through 3 little bites of sweet potatoes when his stomach started to hurt again. He pushed his plate away at the first sign of a stomachache.

"Logie, what's wrong?" Mrs. Knight asked worriedly.

"I guess I'm not ready to eat solid food yet," Logan said. "I'm going to go lie down on the couch, ok?" The brunette excused himself and trudged to the couch, where he laid there listlessly watched Charlie Brown. He could hear soft, worried murmurs in the kitchen as silverware clinked and Carlos chomped. He wished he could join them but he could literally feel his temperature start to rise. His nausea was getting worse by the minute.

"Logan, are you alright?" James asked, peering over the couch nervously. Logan coughed and held his stomach miserably.

"I don't feel so good," Logan moaned. He had never been so sick in his life. This was worse than last night. He prayed he wouldn't have to throw up because there was no way he could get to his feet in time.

Suddenly he felt cool knuckles gently press against his sweat-laden forehead, and James' scared voice rang through his ears.

"Mama K, Logan is really hot!"

Mrs. Knight came rushing over and felt Logan's forehead, than took his temperature.

"One-hundred and four, Logan you are burning up," Mrs. Knight exclaimed. She retrieved a cold washcloth and laid it under Logan's bangs.

"Uhh, it hurts Mama K," Logan whined, rubbing his belly to try and make it feel better.

"Mom, is he ok?" Kendall asked, watching the alarming scene. His heart clenched in fear and pity when Logan began to cry.

"He's looking kind of green," Carlos said, stroking Logan's damp hair away from his cheeks. Mrs. Knight ran and grabbed a bucket from under the sink, pulled Logan into a sitting position, and stuck the bucket under his chin.

"No," Logan whimpered, pushing the bucket away. He remembered how much it hurt him last night to throw up. He didn't want to go through it again.

"It's ok buddy, we're right here," James said, holding the bucket in place with one hand and rubbing his back soothingly with the other. Logan's entire body quaked and he cried before vomiting violently into the bucket. When it was over, he leaned into James' side and sobbed.

Mrs. Knight was extremely alarmed at this point. This was clearly not an upset stomach. Something was terribly wrong with Logan. It was not normal for him to be in so much pain.

"James, can you carry him out to the van very carefully for me? We're taking him to the ER," Mrs. Knight said. James looked frightened, but nodded and scooped Logan's tiny body into his arms and cradled him to his chest. They all slipped on their shoes and hurriedly left the apartment, leaving Thanksgiving dinner half-eaten on the table.

At the ER, Logan was taken from James' protective embrace and wheeled away quickly by a team of doctors, while Mrs. Knight rattled off information to the lady at the front desk. Carlos, James and Kendall huddled in a circle and chewed on their nails. Their nerves were making them sick to their stomachs.

"What do you think is wrong with Logan?" Carlos asked softly. "I've never seen him so sick before."

"I don't know but this is my fault," James said, rubbing a hand across his face. It was his fault Logan got hurt yesterday, and now he was sick and sobbing and in more pain than he could ever imagine, all because of a stupid hockey game.

"It's not your fault," Kendall said. "He didn't get sick because you checked on him. You hadn't even knocked him down hard, I saw it all happen."

"Kendall is right honey, it's not your fault," Mrs. Knight said. "Logan has appendicitis and he's in surgery as we speak."

Mrs. Knight was nearly knocked off her feet by 3 different teenaged voices asking a blur of questions, like what the heck appenda-what-a even was.

"Boys, calm down," Mrs. Knight yelled, putting her hands up. "Logan has an infected appendix. It's a common ailment. He needs to get it removed and he should be out of surgery within the hour. While it can be dangerous and makes a person very sick, we caught it early enough and he's going to be just fine."

The boys were quiet, deep in thought as they pondered the newfound information.

Carlos was the one to break the silence.

"So Logan is having a body part removed?" He asked, squishing his nose in disgust. James just "Ewwed."

"It's an organ that isn't even really used," Mrs. Knight said. "If you paid more attention in school you would know that."

'Is he going to be ok?" James asked. Mrs. Knight tried to describe it as lightly as she could, but even he knew that somebody slicing into one's abdomen and removing an internal organ was not something easily recovered from.

"He'll be bed-ridden for a couple weeks but yes, James. He will be fine. All of his pain and fever's will be gone and he'll be back to Logan in no time."

After a couple of hours of waiting, the boys were allowed back to visit a groggy Logan.

"Logie! Are you ok? Did it hurt?" Carlos asked.

"No, I was sleeping," Logan said, wiping his eyes and yawning. He stiffened when the simple movements jarred his side. It didn't hurt, it just felt really uncomfortable but that was only because he was on heavy-duty pain killers.

"It's good to see you buddy," James said, stroking his black hair gently. Logan attempted a smile but it ended up looking like a goofy, weak grimace.

"Some Thanksgiving, huh guys?" Logan said, nuzzling into his pillow. He wished it was his own pillow in his own bed, but he was so exhausted that he figured it will do.

The boys could hear the apology in his tone, and they all reached over to tenderly pat his back and head.

"It's ok, dude. We'll have our own Thanksgiving when you get better," Kendall said.

"Yeah, we're just thankful you're ok," Carlos said. "You scared us."

"Sorry," Logan said, his voice heavy with sleep. "And James, by the way, it's not your fault."

James smiled. "I still feel bad, buddy. Feel better."

"When you wake up show us your scar," Carlos whispered. Logan's corners of his mouth twitched, and then he started snoring.

"Good night Logan," James whispered, knowing that above all of his Cuda products, pie,lucky comb, and record deal, he was only thankful that Logan was ok.

**A/N I always have the cheesiest endings when I am dead tired. Did you like it? Please review!**

**Oh, the important-ish thing. Yeah. So, bad news first: Because I have about 30 requests right now and things are getting incredibly busy, I can't take any more requests at the moment. I just want to make sure I do all the requests I have lined up first before I do take more. So, I would still love to hear your ideas, I just have to wait to hear them until I announce that I am taking more requests. I am really sorry. I hope you guys don't stop reading this because I can't take anymore right now.**

**Ok and the happy news: Well, I am just going to be announcing something pretty cool in the next chapter! You guys get to hear my Christmas present plans for all of you first hand next chapter so stay tuned. Plus, next chapter will be a side story from "Mystery of You"! And it will be written in a different way as a special challenge from my bootsie, boots n opals! Ok, good night and reviews are peanut-butter.**


	25. rushers rule the world 97

**A/N Ok I am so excited for this request! My girl Rushers Rule The World 97 wanted to see that little scene that Logan mentioned briefly to us during his "goodbye" with Kendall in chapter 18 of "Mystery Of You". I am so glad she brought this up because I forgot about it and I think it will be interesting to write/read. You may want to read chapter 18 of "Mystery of You" to understand what is going on (I'd love you if you did), but if you don't want to, I will leave a brief summary after this atrociously long A/N. **

**This is also a big chapter for me because Boots n Opals wanted me to write in 1****st**** person and I think that is such a cool challenge, so thanks Bootsie and Rushers Rule The World! And at the end of the chapter is my special announcement.**

**Summary: After constant bullying and his mother returning to her drinking problem, Logan spends New Year's Eve at his favorite spot, contemplating the unthinkable. Kendall comes to his rescue. This entire story will be 14-year-old Logan's POV.**

_It's not going to hurt._

_It won't hurt._

_It can't hurt._

I kept whispering those words in my head over and over again as I stared at the pile of small white pills that I was clutching tightly in my shaking, pale hand. They looked like candy. They were sleeping pills. All I would do is fall asleep and never wake up again…

…Right?

It would be peaceful. I would just fall asleep underneath my favorite pine tree and never wake up, maybe get buried under the thick, white snow. No more pain, just like that.

Besides, anything would be better than this. I was only 14, but I felt as if I had this huge hole in my heart. Everyday seemed to get harder and harder at school. Now that I was in high school, I didn't share all my classes with my friends like I did in middle school. Sometimes I would go the whole day without talking to them because we were so busy. I missed Carlos, Kendall and James so much. I always used to have my 3 best friends surrounding me in a small triangle in my classes, but now I was surrounded by bullies.

I thought I could handle their mean comments. I thought I could handle being dragged out back after school and getting pounded for no real reason, just for the fact that I was only 5 feet tall, 3 inches and that I was in all AP classes.

It was funny. On the ice I was powerful with my buddies by my side. We rarely ever lost a game. But take the mask and my hockey stick away along with Kendall, James and Carlos, and I was just some puny little kid who apparently deserved to get black eyes and insults shouted at him every day.

If it wasn't just _that, _maybe the ache wouldn't be so bad. Maybe I would be able to handle it, especially if I just got the nerve to suck it up and tell Kendall. But for some reason, I wanted to hold on to every ounce of pride I had left. And I didn't want Kendall to hate me for being bullied. I didn't want him to hate me for having to fight all of my battles, for being weak.

But it wasn't just the bullying. It was coming home a couple months ago to find my mother passed out cold on the floor with a bottle of whiskey lying loosely in her hands, the last drops of the poisonous liquid dripping onto our plush carpeting.

Mom promised me she would stop drinking after dad left. And she did, too. She was sober for 3 years, and then she just started drinking again.

I was sick of it. I was sick of being bullied all day, than coming home to nurse my mom's hangover throughout the night. I was just so tired. My grades were dropping, I could barely think straight. I felt like I was moving through slow motion in someone else's life. It never used to be that way and I simply couldn't handle it. I wanted nothing more than to go to sleep and just never wake up.

That's why I stole my mom's sleeping pills. She was in one of her drunken rages again, screaming at me how I was supposed to be a doctor and how I am letting her down. Her words stung like razors. She didn't love me anymore, she loved her bottle.

I sniffled and wiped away a stray tear. The white pills seemed to glow in the moonlight, and as I started crying harder, my tears landed on the little pills. I was ready for it to be over.

When I raised my hands to my lips, ready to swallow them in one huge gulp, I saw images of my friends skating around on the pond, snow swirling lightly around them as they sped across the ice. I could hear their laughter and see their smiles through the moonlit fog. They were only memories, but I was so exhausted, it was almost a hallucination.

My hand loosened and the pills slipped through my fingers as my heart seemed to skip a beat. I loved my friends. This was our favorite spot. Before high school started up, we would play here every day, rain or shine. When it was summer, we would swim in the pond. When it was winter, we would skate back and forth "practicing" hockey on the freezing, silvery sheet of ice, when all we were really doing was goofing up. It was my absolute favorite place in the world to be.

My heart clenched and I let a sob escape my chapped lips. I wanted to go home now, but I was too cold and too tired to move. Besides, there was nothing waiting for me at home. There was nowhere for me to go.

I picked up a pill from the snow. My fingers were a shaking, fumbling mess. They were no longer pale, but a beet red. They were getting number by the second.

A little voice in the back of my head told me to go to Kendall's, but I ignored it. I was such a burden to him. He most likely wouldn't want me around.

I picked up another pill and let it fall into my hand, taking a shuddering breath as I forced my numb fingers to move.

I knew deep down that Kendall would never feel that way, but my best friend was almost too good to be true. He was like my big brother. He was always just there. Whether it was to comfort me or to make me laugh, my whole life, Kendall Knight was always there. He had such a comforting presence. He was just so… _Warm._ The way big brothers were supposed to be. He was only 7 months older than me, but it was like he just knew everything. He was wise and he was funny.

I scooped up a couple more sleeping pills when Kendall's image was distorted by my mothers. I tried to think of Kendall, but all I saw was my mother, until her drunken image faded into the faces of my bullies and tormentors. Their harsh words flooded my ears, and tears ran down my frozen cheeks as I remembered what they said.

Before I knew it, I had all of the little white poisons in my hand. I was staring down my own death. All I had to do was close my eyes, put them in my mouth and finally go to sleep. And that's what I did. I gently placed them on my tongue, one by one.

"_Logan, one day, me and you are going to be the 2 greatest hockey players on earth! I'll make sure of it!" _

I could hear Kendall's voice clear as day. A few months ago at practice, he went on and on about his hockey dreams and how he wanted to share them with me. He had found me with a bloody nose in the locker room after one of my bullies found me before practice.

"_It's gonna be just us Loges, us against the world. I won't let anything hurt you ok? And nothing is going to tear us apart. Not even a bully."_

I suddenly spit out the pills, cringing at the bitter taste that melted on my tongue. I didn't want to die. I wanted to be a hockey player with Kendall.

I gasped when I heard a twig snap not too far from me and I quickly scooped snow onto the pills on instinct. I had them all covered just in time to look up and see Kendall standing above me, his emerald eyes wide with shock at the sight of my red, tear-stained face.

"K-kendall," I croaked pitifully, immediately bursting into tears from what I had just done. Or rather, nearly done. I only hoped he didn't see what I was about to do.

"Oh, Logan… You're freezing, dude!" Kendall exclaimed, and his voice was soft yet protective. I breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't know I had almost committed suicide. He shook off his initial fear and turned to his big brother mode. He slipped off his backpack and wrapped a blanket around my shuddering shoulders, rubbing my body to get me to warm up.

"I-I'm cold Kendall," I cried. I was starting to hyperventilate and it was making my chest hurt.

"I know buddy. I'll get you warm, hold on ok?" Kendall started bundling me up with scarves, gloves, and a hat. "Somehow I knew you would be here. For someone so smart, you don't always use your brain, do you?" Kendall chuckled to try and ease his anxiousness, and I ducked my head shyly.

"Sorry," I squeaked. Kendall smiled and rubbed my head.

"It's ok. I love you anyway," Kendall teased. He kneeled in front of me, snow crunching beneath his knees, and stared deeply into my eyes, silently begging for me to tell him what happened. "Logan, what's wrong? Why are you crying so hard? Please tell me. I… I feel like you have been hiding stuff from me, Logie."

I blushed with shame at Kendall's sad, pouting face, but I felt like I couldn't tell him. The words were stuck in my throat like a big hunk of glue. All I could do was cry.

"It's ok buddy, it's ok! You don't have to tell me, ssh. I'm here Logie," Kendall said, trying his hardest to calm me down. He rocked me gently in his arms and I clung to him with the little strength I had left. He held me for what seemed like ages. Despite the frigid air, we were both warm, bundled up and in each other's arms. Finally, when I was finished sobbing for the moment, I let everything that had been going on spill from my mouth. I told him about my mother, and how the kids at school were getting too mean. He listened to all of it quietly, just holding me and rubbing my back when something seemed too hard for me to say.

"Logan, I had no idea…" Kendall said apologetically. He cupped my cheek with his small hand and looked me in the eyes. "If I knew, I would have helped you. You know that, right? And I'm going to help you now, ok?"

I nodded, trusting every word he spoke to me. I knew I wasn't alone anymore.

"I'm sorry Kendall," I said softly, tears welling up in my eyes. I felt like I could cry all night. I just wanted for Kendall to hold me and let me cry all night. I didn't want to stop.

"Why are you sorry buddy? None of this is your fault."

I glanced guiltily at the disrupted snow that hid my secret. I would never be able to tell Kendall. I refused to scare him like that. I started sobbing again and buried my face into his chest.

"I'm just so tired, Kendall," I sobbed, breathing in his warm scent. I wrapped my arms around his skinny body tightly, desperate for the contact. I needed it, and Kendall gladly gave it to me. He brought me into his lap and rested his chin on my head.

"I know. Go to sleep now, I gotcha," Kendall told me in a soothing, hushed tone. He whispered comforting words into my ear and I felt my eyes slip shut and my body relax against his. His voice sounded further and further away he slowly rocked me to sleep.

When I awoke next, the first thing I realized was that I was somewhere warm and soft, and wherever I was smelled really good, like soup and candles. I could hear clanking dishes in the kitchen and a flickering sound of a fire.

I nestled down into the soft cushions I laid on, my eyes feeling like lead. I knew I was somewhere familiar, and I was tempted to fall back to sleep, but my curiosity got the better of me.

I moaned and stretched, wincing at the pain that shot through my throat when I made the quiet sound. My eyes shot open and I saw that I was laying on the couch in Kendall's den across form his fireplace.

"K-Kendall," I rasped out. I rubbed my aching throat and realized my head and chest was just as sore. Why was I suddenly feeling so sick?

"I'm right here," Kendall called. I heard his small, quick feet padding through the kitchen and into the den as he ran to greet me. He saw me and gave me a hug smile. "Logie, you're awake. Are you ok?"

"Mmm, what happened?" I asked, confused.

Kendall's grin turned into a sad frown. "You don't remember last night?"

"No?" I squeaked nervously.

"You kind of had a really bad night, Logan. You ran out to the pond and you were freezing when I found you because you weren't dressed properly. I dressed you and you cried on my lap all night, buddy, because of your mom." Kendall looked down sadly. "You fell asleep in my arms so I carried you home."

I rubbed my eyes as the memories of last night slowly flooded back to me. I remember feeling lonely, and like I was giving up. I remembered the light weight of my mother's tiny white pills in my hand. I could still taste the bitterness in my mouth, and I vaguely felt nauseous. I couldn't believe what I had actually considered. I had wanted to die. I didn't want to die though, not anymore.

"Are you ok Logie? You look really pale," Kendall commented when I was quiet for an awfully long time. I nodded and rubbed the back of my neck. He reached over and felt my forehead. "You're kind of warm."

"Yeah, well… I feel kind of sick," I admitted. "You… You carried me all the way home, Kendall?"

"Well, yeah," Kendall said. "You were shivering a lot and I got worried about you. You weren't very hard to carry. Are you ok now though? You still seem kind of cold." Kendall draped another blanket over my body.

"I feel much better now that I'm here," I said. Suddenly I felt my chest constrict and I went into a coughing fit. My body shuddered as I gasped for air, and Kendall patted my back to get me to calm down. He looked at me, panic shrouding his green eyes.

"Oh no, you're really sick," he said. "And mom is still at her friend's house. What do I do, Logan?" Kendall furrowed his brow in deep thought. I chuckled and struggled to sit up, which was kind of hard. I was really weak.

"I'm ok, Kendy. It's just a cold. I'll get some juice and I'll be fine." I rolled off of the couch, but Kendall shoved me back down and tucked me in tightly. I squirmed uncomfortably.

"Kendall…" I whined.

"Ssh, I'm gonna take care of you, Logan. I'll get you the juice." Kendall rushed into the kitchen. He was gone for several minutes, and he came back with a tray full of various things. He had a glass of orange juice, a bowl of soup, a thermometer, and some purple medicine in a bottle with a big spoon.

"It's a good thing I made soup for lunch," Kendall said, placing the thermometer in my mouth. I rolled my eyes, wiggled my arm free from the tight hold of the blanket he had wrapped around me, and adjusted the device so it was under my tongue. We waited a moment and he squinted at the numbers on the old fashioned thermometer after it beeped in confusion.

"Logie what does it say?"

I rolled my eyes again and took the device away from him. "Tell your mom to get a digital thermometer. It says one hundred and one."

"What does that mean?"

"It means I got a fever," I said with a cough. Kendall frowned.

"That's what happens when you go frolicking outside in the middle of the night when it's 15 degrees out!" He scolded. He gave some cold medicine and my juice and we ate our soup together while we watched "Rudolph's Frosty New Year." It wasn't long before we were both sprawled on the couch, exhausted.

"Hey, Kendall…" I mumbled. My voice sounded distant as I started to drift off to sleep.

"Yeah Loges?" Kendall asked in a soft voice heavy with exhaustion.

"Thanks for saving me."

Kendall raised an eyebrow, confused by my comment, than laid his head next to mine. "No problem, Logie. I'm always here for you, even when I'm far away. You don't even have to call me…" Kendall yawned and smacked his lips contentedly. "It's like I just know. Night, Night Logan."

I smiled and brought my blanket up around Kendall's shoulders. "God night, Kendy."

**A/N Ok, what did you guys think? I hope I did ok! I am not sure how I feel about this, so I added some cute stuff to make up for my complete inability to write in 1****st**** person. Please tell me how I did, I love feedback. Reviews are turkeys and sweet potatoes!**

**Ok so here's the announcement! So for everyone's Christmas present, I am writing a holiday one shot off of Mystery of You! I am getting a lot of requests to continue that story, so I thought I would write a one-shot chronicling Kendall's road to recovery during the holidays. So it will take place between Kendall being released from the hospital and his first concert since he got sick. It will be sad, angsy, and adorable. A little bit of everything! It will be up sometime in December! Does everyone like that Christmas present? ;) Love you guys!**


	26. mavk 4444

**A/N OMG! I'M NOT DEAD! Well I know that most of the people who read this story read my other stuff and know I am not dead but just wanted to be clear on that. Anyway, so after hanging upside down for wayyyyy too long I suddenly remembered this thing! And so I looked in my dusty request book and saw that MAVK4444 is next up with a chicken request! Mavk 4444 I do not even remember what the request is really supposed to be. I just remember chickens and that is all I wrote down in my book. WAIT. CHICKEN WHISPERERS… I remember now. I hope this is what you want and I am so, so, so stinking sorry that I have not updated this in forever! But since I injured my poor wittle foot in dance and can not go to class tonight, I have decided to try and write this. I realllyyyy hope you like it! **

Carlos was extremely excited, even though it was only 5 AM. He was hopping around the kitchen singing "Down on Grandpa's Farm" very loudly, dressed in a red flannel shirt, blue jean overall's, and a straw hat. To Mrs. Knight he looked adorable, but to Kendall, Logan and James he looked absolutely ridiculous.

"Carlos why are you dressed like a hick?" James asked, appalled by Carlos' outfit choice. The Latino smiled and shrugged off James' insult, deciding that the brunette was just cranky because it was so early.

"Because I can't _wait_ 'til we get to the farm!" Carlos exclaimed. This friday morning was not just any morning. It was the morning that they were all going to go visit a farm 2 hours away from the PalmWoods and the overly-bustling city. All of the kids at PalmWoods school were given the day off of school to go do something different and experiencing something had never done before, and then write about their experience over the weekend so that they could read their outing to the class on Monday and share what they learned. After several suggestions of what they could do (Carlos' being a trip to the farm), the youngest finally won the argument with his puppy dog eyes and quivering little lip.

"I don't wanna go to the farm!" Kendall said, emerging from his warm, dark bedroom. He was bitter about the fact that he had the day off of school, yet still had to wake up 2 hours earlier than usual just for Carlos' little farm escapade, because apparently farmers did all of their work in the morning for some ungodly reason.

"Too bad, you have to for school!" Mrs. Knight said. Kendall pouted and slouched on the couch, figuring that it was ok to act childish if the sun wasn't even up yet. The blonde looked up at Carlos' farmer's get-up and chortled.

"Carlos you look hideous!" Kendall shrieked, slapping his own knee forcefully as laugh after giddy laugh escaped his lips.

"Mrs. Knight they're making fun of me!" Carlos said sadly. He kind of liked his overalls. Mrs. Knight giggled and went over to him so she could pinch the squishy apples of his pink cheeks.

"I think you look cute!" She exclaimed. Carlos beamed.

"Can we just go and get this over with?" Logan whined. Carlos started jumping up and down excitedly. Kendall and James muttered their agreements, and Logan drove the entire 2-hour long trip. It felt like a 6 hour drive, however, because Carlos insisted that he play his new bluegrass CD that he had bought specifically for the occasion. The banjos were driving Kendall, Logan and James bananas.

Finally, they arrived to a driveway that winded between acres upon countless acres of sprawling green hills and fences. The grass was littered with trees, and cows, and goats, and chickens, and geese, and all kinds of other farm animals. Even Kendall had to admit it looked pretty cool, while Logan pointed out every animal he saw to Carlos and told him what they were. James was pouting in the backseat, fake-gagging because of the icky animal smell.

Finally, they pulled up to a huge, rickety white farm house that was situated in front of a giant red barn. Carlos ran immediately to the tire swing that was tied to an oak tree in front of the house, while Logan, James and Kendall greeted an old man with a pitchfork dressed in the same attire that Carlos wore.

"Well hey there boys," he said jovially with a thick, southern accent. The boys had to suppress giggles as they had never heard someone talk like that before, having only lived in Minnesota and LA their whole lives. "Are you them singing kids from the PalmWoods school, here to learn about life on the farm?"

""You're darn-tootin' we are!" Kendall said enthusiastically, pumping his arm in front of his chest. Logan elbowed him in the gut, but the farmer was either used to kids making fun of him or didn't hear the insult in Kendall's voice, because he just kept on yapping.

"My name is Farmer McDonald and this is my farm! I'll be showing you kids around today!"

"Oh my God, your name is McDonald and you have a _farm?" _James asked. "How ironic is that!"

Logan gasped and tugged on James' perfect brown locks. The pretty boy shrieked and brought his hands to his head, making sure not one hair was out of place.

Again, the farmer didn't really seem to get that the teenagers were insulting him. Carlos skipped over and the 4 boys introduced themselves, and Farmer McDonald led them down a path as he went on and on about how they were all going to pick apples, pet a goat, milk a cow, gather eggs, feed the chickens, and, if they were really good, ride a horse. All 4 of the boys couldn't hide their excitement for that. Not one of them had ever ridden a horse before and they couldn't wait to try it out.

The boys grabbed their baskets that Farmer McDonald gave them and they spent a good hour picking apples. Than they petted a goat as promised, as well as fed a baby bunny from a bottle and looked at a couple of ostriches. The farmer even had some alpacas and donkeys.

After the little petting zoo, the boys got to try their hand at milking cows (well, Kendall, Carlos and Logan did. James freaked out and refused to touch a cow) and then they all had a picnic lunch. The boys had to admit that they were having a very fun time so far, just being outside and learning about furry animals.

"Well, are you boys ready to go feed some chickens!" The Farmer yelled, and the band mates all cheered enthusiastically. They grabbed their egg-gathering baskets and ran down the hill to the chickens after the farmer gave them all instructions.

Apparently though, Carlos didn't listen closely enough to the farmers instructions because, not even 3 minutes after they started gathering eggs and laying out feed for the chickens, Carlos started trying to feed the birds by hand and pet them, which is something the Farmer McDonald told them specifically not to do.

""Here, chickie chickie chickie," Carlos said in a sing-song voice, holding out his palm filled with seed to a particularly large rooster. The rooster bobbed his big head and eyed Carlos warily.

"Carlos, what are you doing?" Logan asked protectively. To be honest, the chickens kind of creeped him out, with their beady black eyes and their sharp beaks.

"Feeding the chickens like I am supposed to do!" Carlos said, annoyed. Logan was breaking his concentration on trying to get the rooster to come to him.

"Leave him alone Logan, let the kid have some fun," Kendall said, searching for any eggs hidden in the tall grass.

Logan sighed in aggravation and swung his basket, giving up. "Fine, but if Carlos gets attacked by a territorial chicken, don't get me involved."

Everyone ignored Logan, and the smart boy turned his back and started searching for eggs, letting Carlos do whatever he wanted to do. Moments later, he heard a cacophony of sounds that just did not sound good. He heard wings furiously flapping and angry "BAWKS! BAWKS!" rang through the gentle wind that was blowing across the farm, followed by cries of pain and shouts of "GET OFF ME, STUPID BIRD!"

"Carlos!" Logan yelled, turning around to see Carlos being quite violently attacked by not just one chicken, but an entire angry mob of 4 or 5 of them. The young boy was rolling around in the grass, flailing his legs and arms every which way in hopes of getting the chickens to leave him alone.

"Carlitos!" Kendall screamed, running to Carlos' helpless body. He started kicking the vicious poultry off of his younger friend. He managed to scare off all of the chickens except for the one large rooster, who continued to peck at poor, screeching Carlos, unfazed by Kendall's Van's flying at him.

"Aah, get off of my friend you beast!" James cried. He had enough of watching Carlos get pecked to death. He ran towards the rooster with his hands in a choke-hold, but the rooster turned around and smacked James in the face with his wings roughly before continuing his tyranny on the little Latino, who was now writhing in pain and crying.

"He's a demon bird!" James wailed, who was now on his butt because of the force of the chicken's wing.

"Help!" Logan screamed, hoping Farmer McDonald would hear his cries, but the old man was in his house, baking pies or whatever it was that farmers do.

Carlos rolled around on the ground while the chicken scratched and pecked him relentlessly, as James and Kendall tried feebly to scare the demonic chicken away. Logan stood back a safe distance away from the strange and terrifying scene, until he suddenly remembered something as he searched his overly-informed brain for some way to help Carlos.

He remembered seeing a show on TV once, about evil, mean dogs that were calmed down by special people who could connect with them somehow. Logan thought the idea was pretty far-fetched, but he figured that about now, he might as well try anything before his best friend could be mauled by the monster bird any longer.

Logan approached the chicken very slowly and in a low, gentle whisper he said, "It's ok little rooster. My name is Logan. I'm your friend-"

"Logan! What the _hell _are you doing?" Kendall asked, fearing for his best friend's sanity. The smaller boy had a habit of losing it when he was put in harrowing situations.

"Ssh! I'm whispering!" Logan said. He got a little closer to the rooster and continued to talk in a soothing voice. Suddenly, the rooster slowed his assault on Carlos and cocked his head to the side, staring at Logan with those tiny, creepy eyes.

"Hi chicken, yeah. That's it. Just get off of my friend and no one will be hurt," Logan whispered, feeling absolutely ridiculous.

The rooster gave one last bat of his wings and surprisingly enough, hopped off of Carlos and stared at Logan.

"Um, guys? I'm scared," Logan squeaked. He closed his eyes as the rooster ruffled his feathers and raised his wings, and he flinched and jumped 3 feet in the air when it let out an ear piercing "Cock-a-doodle-doo!"

"Ahhhhh!" Logan screamed, bursting into tears and covering his head with his arms.

"Logan, calm down! Look! He went away!" James said in amazement. The rooster had let out a scary crow and then hopped away as if he didn't just almost murder a teenage boy.

"Oh my- bipolar chicken!" Kendall cried, pointing at the terrifying bird. He then looked down at Carlos, who was moaning and crying, scared out of his mind. "Carlos!"

The 3 older boys rushed to Carlos' side. James and Kendall stroked his hair and tried to comfort him while Logan assessed his injuries.

"You have dozens of scratches and peck marks but once I get them cleaned up you should be fine," Logan said. He looked up at Kendall and James. "Help me get him to the farmhouse?"

"Got it," James said, carefully picking his small friend up and cradling him in his arms. "It's ok Carlitos, Logan's gonna fix you up."

Carlos moaned and buried his face in James' shoulder. "He was so feathery and evil!"

"I know Carlos, he's gone now," James assured him.

"Yeah, Logan's a real modern day chicken whisperer," Kendall said proudly, giving the pale boy's back a fond pat. The boys made their way up to the farmhouse, where Kendall confronted the farmer.

"Farmer McDonald! Your chicken just maimed my best friend!" Kendall yelled. The old farmer looked up from where he was whittling a piece of wood and squinted at Carlos, who was huddled in James' arms, shivering from the shock of the attack.

"Well hot dang!" The farmer exclaimed, peering at the traumatized teenager.

Carlos lifted his head up just long enough to scream "I hate chickens!" before burying his face into the warm crook of James' neck again.

"Awwe, not all chickens are bad!" The farmer cooed, giving Carlos' head a pat. "You just came across ol' Diablo."

"You have a chicken named Diablo?" Logan asked. "And you didn't think to warn us?"

"No, I guess I forgot to bring it up! He'll be ok though, won't he?" The farmer asked. Logan smacked his forehead with his palm.

"Ugh, James just give me Carlos so I can put some peroxide on his cuts!" Logan said, holding out his arms so he could help Carlos into the bathroom.

"First aid kit is in the cabinet!" The farmer said cheerfully. Logan was very close to kicking the farmer where the sun failed to shine.

"Come on 'Litos, I'll make it feel better," Logan said, putting his hand on Carlos back. As he led the hurt boy to the bathroom, he could hear James in his best deep, heroic voice, say "There goes Logan Mitchell, boy band vocalist, best friend, and chicken whisperer."

"Whatever James," Logan said, his cheeks blushing pink.

'But you're a superhero, Logie! You can wear red tights and a chicken suit and save people from demonic chickens!" James called out. Logan just ignored him, feeling his skin flush with humiliation, but he couldn't ignore the next comment.

"You can call yourself 'CockBoy,'" Kendall teased. "The majestical cock-whisperer."

Logan turned around and attacked Kendall about as ferociously as the chicken attacked Carlos for that one.

**A/N Hahahaha! Omg who am I? I hope this was what you wanted, Mav! Was this really funny or is my brain just whack? Either way I loved writing this! Please, please review and tell me what you think it would mean the world to me!**

**PS I really am sorry I have neglected this and I still have everyone's requests, just working slowly through the list! **


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